Hastings Lennox and Addington candidates have history with each other

Jeff Green | Aug 18, 2021

There are some gaps in the slate of candidates in the Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding (which includes the Township of Addington Highlands) but the three confirmed candidates in the riding, who are already out campaigning, are certainly known to each other.

The first time the riding was contested, in 2015, Mike Bossio rode a wave of support for the Liberal Party, in Ontario, to a very tight victory over Conservative Daryl Kramp by only 325 votes. Bossio received 42.4% of the vote, and Kramp 41.9%. Kramp was the incumbent from the previous Hastings-Prince Edward riding.

Kramp subsequently ran for the Progressive Conservative Party in the 2019 provincial election, and won. He is now serving as the MPP for Hastings-Lennox and Addington at Queen’s Park.

(Provincial and Federal ridings in Ontario use the same boundaries.)

In 2019, the Conservative Party turned the tables on the Liberals. Derek Sloan, the Conservative candidate, beat the incumbent Mike Bossio. Sloan received 41.7% of the vote, and Bossio 37.1%. The margin of victory was 2247 votes.

In the 2021 election, Bossio is running again, trying to win back his seat. Derek Sloan is running as the incumbent, but he is running as an Independent because he was booted out of the federal Conservative Party caucus in January, of this year, for what party leader Erin O’Toole described as a “pattern of destructive behaviour.” In the days preceding the decision to oust Sloan from the Conservative Party caucus, it had been revealed that Sloan had accepted a political donation from what CTV News described as “a known white nationalist”.

Sloan’s support for the Campaign Life Coalition, an pro-life/anti-choice organisation, placed him on the Social Conservative wing of the party.

He has since joined the Anti-Lockdown Coalition, with Peoples Party Leader Maxime Bernier and Lanark Frontenac MPP Randy Hillier.

The Conservative Party candidate in this riding is also connected to a previous election. Shelby Kramp-Neuman is Daryl Kramp’s daughter.

She has served as the Deputy Mayor of Centre Hastings Township, and is a Financial Advisor with Sun Life in Belleville. In the past she worked as legislative assistant at Parliament Hill and at Global Affairs Canada.

(Editor's note – We will have coverage of the candidates in Hastings, Lennox and Addington as the campaign unfolds.)