Hamilton Centre byelection: Get to know the candidates

The leading candidates running to be Hamilton Centre's next MPP bring a wide range of experience from policing to environmental protesting to advocating for residents who live with a disability or experience homelessness.

They have just over a week until Election Day on March 16 to convince voters they're the right person to replace former New Democrat leader Andrea Horwath, who is now Hamilton's mayor.

CBC Hamilton interviewed the four candidate last week to find out what they each bring to the table.

Pete Wiesner for the Progressive Conservative Party

The veteran police officer said he wants to give Hamilton Centre residents something they haven't had since the early 1990s: an MPP who's a member of the majority government. 

"What we're hearing at the doors is people are ready for change," said Wiesner. "If they were to vote for Pete Wiesner and the Progressive Conservative Party, they'll have a voice immediately to the government in power."

One of the top areas Wiesner said he would focus on is bolstering support for residents struggling with mental health, homelessness and addiction. It's a concern voters have raised with him, he said, and one he's spent the last several years working on leading the police's crisis response branch. 

The police teams Wiesner leads work with mental health workers and social support groups to respond to calls involving marginalized residents. 

"It breaks my heart to see these people who live so rough, people that I've befriended, that I have relationships with and I care about," Wiesner said. "So any supports that we can get to help those sectors — mental health, addiction and homelessness — that's my passion."

Lucia Iannantuono for the Green Party of Ontario

Iannantuono was drawn to Hamilton's environmental movement to bring attention to climate change, but she said she realized there's a limit to what activism can achieve if the people in power aren't listening.

"If we don't have anybody in positions of power who sees how everything's working and wants to make these changes, things aren't going to change, right?" Iannantuono said. "I felt like somebody, somewhere needed to step up. So I went for it." 

Iannantuono works in the electrical engineering field and is a member of Hamilton 350, a group pushing for climate emergency action. She said she's a problem solver who wants to help the province adapt to climate change by investing in green energy, updating building codes to meet net-zero emissions targets and addressing food insecurity by protecting farmland.

"You expect your leaders and civic institutions are taking care of the nuts and bolts of society," she said. "But we're headed for a place where they're not going to work because our leaders have been negligent in their duties."

Sarah Jama for the New Democratic Party

When asked if Jama considers herself a do-er, her answer is an immediate and enthusiastic "absolutely." 

The well known Hamilton activist, who uses a wheelchair and grew up relying on the Ontario Disability Support Network, co-founded the Disability Justice Network of Ontario and Hamilton Encampment Support Network.

At the beginning of the pandemic when services shut down, Jama was behind the local network CareMongering that connected residents with health and mobility challenges to residents willing to help. 

And when the COVID-19 vaccine became available, she was part of the group that successfully pushed Hamilton public health to prioritize Black, racialized and disabled people. 

Jama said life experience has shaped her belief that everyone deserves to be taken care of — a philosophy that will inform her decisions at Queen's Park, if elected.

"I have a lot of perspectives to bring to the table around what's going on with the privatization of our health-care system and pushing back," Jama said. "I'm super excited to weigh in on housing as well. It's getting too expensive to live in Hamilton Centre and people are really struggling to get by." 

Deirdre Pike for the Ontario Liberal Party

In November, Pike was at a protest against the Ford government's plan to open the Greenbelt up for development when she said people kept coming up to her to talk about the byelection.

That's when it clicked for the researcher, equity consultant and Hamilton Spectator columnist — running for MPP could be her chance to make a difference. 

"I started to recognize there was a real void for a voice like mine, with this breadth of experience, to say, 'let's work together,'" Pike said. "I am working forward to working across party lines." 

Pike is a founding member of the Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters, which she said is a potential solution to homelessness that can be applied across the province. And her work advocating for people in  poverty and pushing for social assistance reform makes her well positioned to represent Hamilton Centre residents.

It's the second time she's run — she was the Liberal nominee for the riding in 2018. But she said this time is different. 

"There's momentum across the province and you feel that," Pike said. "This is the time for change, not just in Hamilton Centre, but in Ontario, and I will be leading that."