Janice Folk-Dawson will be the Guelph NDP candidate in the next federal election.
Folk-Dawson, a longtime local labour leader, is the lone candidate heading into Friday night's nomination meeting at the Guelph Youth Music Centre.
The Guelph NDP chose to do the nomination early because with it being a minority government an election could be called at any time so they wanted to be prepared, said Jordan Lemcke, president of the Guelph New Democratic Party Electoral District Association.
“It's always good to have a candidate nominated well in advance, because that lets them get more out in the community as the candidate,” said Lemcke. This allows people to know Folk-Dawson as “someone who is vying to get their vote,” he said.
People will then have an understanding of who she is, what she intends to fight for and what values she represents, Lemcke said.
“Situations like we had back in 2021 where it was called at a time where no one was really expecting it. It's not always possible to be 100 per cent ahead of that,” he said.
“In our case here, Janice was the only person who ended up stepping forward and going through the process for it all. So at the nomination meeting that we'll be having, there will be a vote because that's the only requirement,” he said.
Lemcke expects Folk-Dawson to become the candidate after the vote.
“So the absolute latest theoretical date, the latest dates for the next election would be October of 2025. It would probably be because sometimes a party will nominate their candidate very late into the process. Sometimes the election has already been called and is formally underway before a party will have their candidate nominated in certain ridings. Most parties try to avoid that outcome as best they can," he said.
Folk-Dawson has experience as the past-president of the Guelph District Labour Council, past president of CUPE 1334, and current executive vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
Lemcke explained Folk-Dawson wants to bring back the feeling of the NDP being a party for the working people and in recent times the party has moved away from its roots so she wants to bring the party back.
“She has that understanding of what people's situations are. What people need their government to actually be delivering on. She had the experience actually fighting for these things, to show that if we were to actually get her elected as the MP for Guelph, she'd be able to get some really good results for people,” said Lemcke.
“It's really exciting to know that someone with that kind of background could represent Guelph and that she's got a serious chance especially because federally, there is not going to be an incumbent in the next election because Lloyd Longfield is not going to be seeking reelection,” he said.
