Former Top Cop Seeks Peter Kormos’s Seat

By Doug Draper

There is another contender to fill the big seat Welland Riding MPP Peter Kormos has chosen to vacate at Queen’s Park.

Mick Riddle

His name is Mick Riddle, a 60-year-old retired Niagara Regional Police officer and resident of Welland who now teaches at Niagara College. He will be vying for the NDP nomination as a candidate in the Welland Riding at the party’s Sunday, August 7 nomination meeting.

“I would be honoured to step into one shoe of Mel Swart (the late NDP representative for the riding who held the seat until his retirement in the late 1980s) and one of Peter’s cowboy boots,” said Riddle in a recent interview with Niagara At Large. “I have no doubt in my mind that I can step into those boots and keep this riding (orange for the NDP) rather have it swallowed up in blue or red.”
Health care, the elderly, young people and education are among the main concerns of this father of three young adults. “We have to come up with a way to help our young people get started.” They come out of school burdened with debt, and finding it hard obtain to get a job making enough money here to buy a home, Riddle said.

Riddle, who according to his biography received many “commendations of excellence” for policing work over the years, said he wants to continue in the tradition of Swart and Kormos, and be “a new voice and a new face for the people.”

If he wins the NDP nomination, he will be running, Welland Riding encompassing south St. Catharines, Thorold, Port Colborne and Wainfleet. At the nomination meeting he will be running against Niagara regional councillor and former Welland mayor Cindy Forster, whose candidacy has previously been covered by Niagara At Large.

The NDP nomination meeting for the Welland Riding will begin at  6 p.m. on August 7  at the CAW Local 523 on 16 Steel St. in Welland and Ontario’s NDP leader Andrea Horwath will be the featured speaker. All members of the NDP in good standing in the riding are eligible to vote at the meeting.

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