Niagara Falls, Ontario City Councillor And Union Leader Wayne Gates Sets His Sights On Seat At Queen’s Park

By Doug Draper

Wayne Gates, a long-time union leader in Niagara, Ontario and a municipal councillor for the City of Niagara Falls, has announced his plans to seek the candidacy for the Ontario New Democrats in an upcoming byelection in the Niagara Falls Riding.

Wyane Gates, Niagara Falls councillor and local CAW president, seeks Ontario NDP candidacy in Niagara Falls Riding.

“I am seeking nomination (to run for the NDP) and I want to show that if I am elected, I will fight for everyone across the riding,” Gates told Niagara At Large after announcing his intentions this January 7^th at three locations in a riding that takes in residents in southern Ontario municipalities of Fort Erie, Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

If Gates wins the candidacy at a nomination meeting the party has yet to schedule and that, as of this January 8^th, there are no other individuals in the running, he will be campaigning in a byelection to replace the former Liberal MPP for the riding, Kim Craitor who, after 10 years, resigned suddenly last September for what he would only say at the time were personal health and family reasons.The byelection in Niagara Falls, which also has yet to be scheduled, will no doubt be covered by media across the province as a possible harbinger of what may become of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s minority Liberal government in a general election that could follow later this year should the opposition Tories and NDP find some reason to group together to pull the plug on her government. 

Whoever the NDP candidate is in a Niagara Falls Riding byelection will face a determined Tory candidate and Niagara Falls regional councillor Bart Maves, who served the riding as MPP during the Mike Harris years the late 1990s to early 2000s and has already shared in many media events with Tory party leader Tim Hudak.

Wayne Gates speaks at rally in Welland last year to save hospital services in south Niagara. Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati, another speaker at the rally, looks on at left.

He or she will also most likely face Niagara Falls city councillor Joyce Morocco, who many expect to be declared the Liberal candidate at a nomination meeting this January 9^th. 

For Gates’ part, he has been an outspoken critic as a Niagara Falls city councillor and as president of Local 199 of the Canadian Auto Workers  of what the province’s Liberal government and the Niagara Health System has done in the area of health care and hospital services in recent years. He has also fought for more government action to save decent paying jobs in the region and to keep neighbourhood schools like Parliament Oak Public School in Niagara-on-the-Lake. “Schools like this are a heartbeat of the community and I support keeping them open,” he said.

Gates told NAL he believes his years and in politics and in the labour movement where he has been “involved in negotiations with some of the largest corporations in the world” has prepared him too be an effective representative for people in the Niagara Falls Riding. 

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