{"id":5822,"date":"2014-03-12T15:03:44","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T19:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5822"},"modified":"2014-03-26T13:34:45","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T17:34:45","slug":"ballard-and-twinney-to-be-acclaimed-as-liberal-pc-candidates-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ballard-and-twinney-to-be-acclaimed-as-liberal-pc-candidates-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballard and Twinney to be acclaimed as Liberal, PC candidates next week"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Ontarians still don\u2019t know when they will be going to the polls just yet, but the upcoming Provincial Election race will be solidified next week. <\/p>\n

Ontario Liberal candidate \u2013 and Aurora Councillor \u2013 Chris Ballard is slated to be formally nominated and acclaimed as Newmarket-Aurora\u2019s provincial Liberal candidate next Wednesday, March 19, at the Aurora Cultural Centre. <\/p>\n

The following evening, at The Mansion on Industrial Parkway South, Progressive Conservative Candidate \u2013 and Newmarket Councillor \u2013 Jane Twinney will also be acclaimed to carry her party\u2019s banner. <\/p>\n

Although Councillor Ballard has been unchallenged in the Liberal race, the same cannot be said for Councillor Twinney.
\n

\"(Top)

(Top) Councillor Chris Ballard and his wife Audrey celebrate his campaign launch last fall, while (above) Councillor Jane Twinney greets supporter Pat Carabine at a recent campaign event at Chinook restaurant. (Auroran photos by Brock Weir and Diane Buchanan)<\/p><\/div>
\nProgressive Conservative members jostled to fill the impending vacancy to be left by incumbent MPP Frank Klees, after he surprised many of the community with his announcement he would not be seeking re-election. Joining Councillor Twinney in the race were Auroran columnist Stephen Somerville and Newmarket Councillor Maddie di Muccio.<\/p>\n

Councillor di Muccio\u2019s candidacy, however, courted controversy after her nomination was nixed at the party level. The next twist in the local Progressive Conservative race happened February 19 when Mr. Somerville withdrew his name from the race after receiving \u201cthreats\u201d against himself and his family. <\/p>\n

Following his departure, Councillor Twinney remained unchallenged. <\/p>\n

Speaking to supporters shortly after announcing his candidacy last fall, Councillor Ballard hailed his local roots. <\/p>\n

\u201cAurora and Newmarket have been like second homes to me,\u201d he said, joined by his wife Audrey, his brothers Michael and Ed, and their families. \u201cMy children are all products of the public school system here in Aurora and they have found Aurora to be a very special place, as have I. It is the same sort of thing we hear from those who grew up in Newmarket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jumping into the provincial arena, he said, was not a step he took lightly and before making the leap, he took \u201cmany months\u201d talking with friends and family on his next steps, asking what they think an MPP should do for them.<\/p>\n

If elected MPP, Councillor Ballard says among the issues he will fight for are making Aurora a \u201csustainable community\u201d, working with citizens, business, labour groups, and municipal governments to anticipate the issues to come, rather than simply reacting to them, health care, education, transportation, the Oak Ridges Moraine, and making sure citizens can \u201caccess\u201d their government, something he said he \u201clearned from the master\u201d in former mayor Phyllis Morris. <\/p>\n

At the end of the day, he said, Premier Kathleen Wynne made supporting the Liberal party an easy choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a phenomenal woman,\u201d he said. I have met a lot of leaders in my career and not many of them have a very contagious enthusiasm she brings to the table.\u201d <\/p>\n

As the nomination window closed for PC nominations last week, Mr. Klees said Newmarket-Aurora would be well-served by Councillor Twinney.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has conducted herself with grace and dignity,\u201d said Mr. Klees. \u201cShe has demonstrated she is a hard worker. I have observed her advocacy on behalf of constituents. She is not afraid to take a stand, but she does so with civility and I believe she has the respect of all of her colleagues, which is one thing I think is going to be a significant advantage for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ontarians still don\u2019t know when they will be going to the polls just yet, but the upcoming Provincial Election race will be solidified next week. <\/p>\n

Ontario Liberal candidate \u2013 and Aurora Councillor \u2013 Chris Ballard is slated to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5822","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\/03\/2014-03-13-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1vU","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 14:24:32","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\/5822","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=5822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}