By Terilyn Gullison
A second political party has set a date for its nomination meeting for Ottawa Centre in anticipation of a provincial election later this year.
The Ottawa Centre NDP riding association will select its candidate on Feb. 10. It follows the nomination of Liberal MPP Richard Patten in November.
So far, the only declared candidate for the NDP nomination is Jeff Atkinson, co-president of the NDP Provincial Riding Association.
Atkinson says the NDP has a strong chance of capturing the seat this year.
“We are polling at double what we were polling in the 1999 election,” says Atkinson.
“It’s a considerable increase if you look at the fact that we only trailed first place by 6,000 votes and second place by 2,000,” he says.
Atkinson, a long-time Centretown resident, decided to declare his candidacy to help fix the problems in the community that he’s experienced first hand.
“I’ve seen what Ottawa has been put through for the past number of years,” he says.
“We are not building a community, we are bulldozing it down with the market-driven, privatize-everything mentality. Queen’s Park doesn’t care. The only concern they have for the centre is a commercial concern…This shifts the focus of things like hospitals and schools in communities and Ontario hydro away from the common good.”
Atkinson says he hopes to remedy these problems by being an active, creative voice for the Ottawa Centre.
“He is a great candidate,” says Somerset Ward Coun. Elisabeth Arnold, the NDP candidate in the 1999 election. “I think he’ll do a great job.”
“I can see the pattern in the nature of representation of Ottawa is important,” Patten says. “There’s so much intervention with CHEO, with the hospitals and with the school boards. That gave me an extra boost to go at it again.”
Patten, like Atkinson, says the riding is under-represented.
“The ministers of the government aren’t fighting for Ottawa and we need someone to fight for the people of this area,” he said in an earlier interview.
A date has not yet been set for a Progressive Conservative nomination meeting, according to Joe Varner, president of the PC provincial riding association, although he says he anticipates it will be soon.
“There have certainly been people who have expressed interest…they’re still making decisions and we’re still making decisions,” he says.
“We certainly think Ottawa Centre is a winnable seat.”