There are three people in the running to be the local Conservative candidate in the upcoming provincial election, including former city councillor Ray Ferraro.
Those three individuals have been approved by the local riding association. They still have to be vetted and approved at the provincial level before they are officially eligible at the upcoming local convention to select a candidate.
“I don’t anticipate any issues with them being approved,” said local riding association president Robert Coole of the three.
The local convention will take place after the provincial leadership convention on March 10, Coole said. A date has been selected, but that too has to be approved by the provincial Tory association.
Coole said at this stage the local riding won’t identify who the three candidate nominees are, but did confirm that Ferraro was one of them, given that Ferraro himself confirmed it.
“At this point it’s up to the if they want to let their names be known,” Coole said. “The local riding association is bound to secrecy.”
He said all three are “excellent candidates.”
Those interested in running locally had until Wednesday to apply, although Coole said a potential nominee could still apply to the provincial association, something he doesn’t foresee happening.
Ferraro, a longtime local real estate development consultant whose brother Rick once served as Liberal MPP in Guelph, confirmed he is one of the three.
“There’s never been a better time for a change in government. I have the energy and the time to do it,” said Ferraro, who is “in his 70s.”
Ferraro said he would do a better job of representing local interests as opposed to provincial ones.
“People here before did not serve the needs of Guelph,” he said, adding that low cost housing and attracting industry to the city are two of his concerns.
Ferraro served on Guelph City Council from 2003 to 2006. He ran in the next three municipal elections, all in Ward 2, finishing third each time. In 2014 he finished 375 votes behind James Gordon and 651 votes behind Andy Van Hellemond.
Sly Castaldi, Executive Director of Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, will be representing the Liberals in the next election, replacing longtime MPP Liz Sandals who is retiring.
Mike Schreiner is representing the Green Party.
The NDP party has yet to name any nominees running to represent its party.
