{"id":5312,"date":"2014-01-24T17:16:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T22:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5312"},"modified":"2014-01-29T15:30:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:30:17","slug":"newmarket-councillor-eyes-pc-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/newmarket-councillor-eyes-pc-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"Newmarket Councillor eyes PC nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newmarket Councillor Maddie Di Muccio is set to vie for the Progressive Conservative candidacy for Newmarket-Aurora. <\/p>\n

Before a room of supporters on Tuesday, incumbent Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees announced he would not seek re-election in the next Provincial election after nearly 20 years at Queen\u2019s Park. Klees announced he would serve out the end of his term, but that could come as early as this spring pending a snap election. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very big shoes to fill,\u201d Di Muccio, a long-time and active member in local Conservative and Progressive Conservative politics, told The Auroran on Friday. \u201cI think Frank has done an incredible job representing this riding. I haven\u2019t made any formal decision, but at this point, it looks like I will be. Having said that, until the end of my own term at this Council, my priority continues to remain as a Councillor representing Ward 6.\u201d<\/p>\n

Di Muccio said she would spend the weekend speaking with family, friends and supporters, but all signs are pointing in the direction of jumping into the Provincial ring. <\/p>\n

Looking ahead to Provincial matters, education and taxes remain at the top of her list, including her opposition to further taxes on gas. <\/p>\n

Now in her first term as a Newmarket Councillor, her tenure thus far has not been without controversy and contention around the Council table. Nevertheless, she said she believes she has done a \u201cvery good job in a short amount of time\u201d standing up for taxpayers. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is a very nasty world and we need people who won\u2019t back down and I think I have shown that with my track record I won\u2019t back down,\u201d she said. \u201cI would like to continue Frank\u2019s tradition of strong government. I also realise politics, especially with organized parties, it is [about] teamwork, loyalty and making sure the message is strong and consistent. That is something I definitely propose that I will do and qualities I would like to carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although a Councillor in Newmarket, Di Muccio said her Aurora connections run deep both as a former resident as a mother whose son goes to school within the municipality. She said she is a York Region person to her core and wouldn\u2019t consider herself an \u201coutsider of Aurora by any stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Di Muccio joins Aurora Councillor Chris Ballard in the Provincial race. Seeking the Liberal nomination, Councillor Ballard announced his candidacy last fall. Both still need their candidacies approved by their respective party\u2019s riding associations and further candidates can also challenge them for the posts.<\/p>\n

Councillor Ballard was among those reacting to Mr. Klees\u2019 announcement this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrank Klees has served the residents of Aurora for many years with dedication,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has demonstrated an admirable commitment to public service and I wish him well as he moves on in the next phase of his life. I found him to be personally engaging and caring about the future.\u201d
\nSimilar words were expressed by Mayor Geoffrey Dawe who said Klees\u2019 announcement took him by surprise. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Frank did a great job for our community,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a lot of respect for Frank and the work he did. He did a great job as a constituency MPP and that is what I think truly differentiates him from a lot of the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story will be updated. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newmarket Councillor Maddie Di Muccio is set to vie for the Progressive Conservative candidacy for Newmarket-Aurora.\u201cThey are very big shoes to fill,\u201d Di Muccio, told The Auroran on Friday. “\u201cI think Frank has done an incredible job representing this riding. I haven\u2019t made any formal decision, but at this point, it looks like I will be.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2014-01-22-14.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1nG","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 10:43:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}