The Liberal Party of Canada has chosen a federal candidate for the Wellington–Halton Hills riding.
On Friday, the local riding association announced Fergus resident Melanie Lang has been chosen to run in the next general election.
“I’m honoured to be joining a strong team and look forward to a lively campaign when the time comes,” Lang said in a press release. “As a long-time resident of Wellington–Halton Hills, I know the issues and communities well.”
A press release states Lang is the principal at Melanie Lang Consulting, an education and management consulting firm, and a founding executive director of the John F. Wood Centre for Business and Student Enterprise at the University of Guelph.
“She has more than 15 years experience serving her community and creating economic development initiatives through diverse forms of scholarship, collaborative projects and community-engaged programs,” the release states.
Lang grew up in a small rural community in western Quebec and spent a majority of her academic and professional career at the University of Guelph. She is currently pursuing a PhD in rural studies where she’s exploring the role of rural entrepreneurship in building economically strong and resilient communities.
“It will be up to us to decide what kind of Canada we want – one that is inclusive and focused on building our rural and urban communities up, or one that looks towards the past,” Lang said in the release.
Lang will be running against longtime Wellington–Halton Hills MP Michael Chong from the Conservative Party. Other federal parties have yet to announce a candidate in the riding.
Chong has represented the riding since 2004. In the last election he had over 13,000 more votes than runner-up Lesley Barron of the Liberals.
