Cumpson Seeks Provincial NDP Nomination in LFK

Jeff Green | Oct 06, 2021

Drew Cumpson is seeking the NDP nomination for MPP in the next Ontario provincial election, which is scheduled to take place next June.

Cumpson is the first candidate to have been vetted and approved by the Ontario New Democrats in the riding. He told the News this week that there is at least one other candidate who has applied to the NDP for approval to run. The candidate selection meeting will likely take place in November via Zoom, and Cumpson is focusing his efforts on signing up members.

Although he now lives just outside the riding, in between Westbrook and Odessa, most of his family and friends live in Frontenac County, and his personal story is familiar to many in the riding.

After graduating from Sydenham High School, he attended Guelph University where he was taking a degree in hospitality. In the spring of 2011, he participated in a humanitarian trip to Peru with some classmates. On the last day of the trip, May 10, the group were enjoying a beach excursion and he was body surfing when he was hit by a massive wave and swept onto the rocks. He does not remember what happened next, but friends who saved his life have told him that he said “spinal injury” when they rescued him.

He ended up in the ICU at what was then Kingston General Hospital (KGH) for well over a year, and at St. Mary's of the Lake for three years after that. He is a quadriplegic and needs to use a ventilator at all times. If his recovery was not difficult enough, his mother Heather, who spent the first year of his stay at KGH by his side, died in July of 2013.

Even while in hospital, recovering his ability to talk, he began organising fundraising events to help him fund various projects, first around surgery that would be needed, and later to help him arrange for his housing needs. He lives in an accessible house now, with his grandmother, who is 89, with a lot of support from his father Jim, and personal support workers.

He completed his degree at Guelph and has been working as an accessibility consultant, after taking the Rick Hansen Accessibility certification course at George Brown College. He has been doing contract work for the Rick Hansen Foundation, and setting up his own consulting business.

He has also been working as an advocate for accessibility and LGBTQ rights. Before COVID, he was working on a travel documentary, with the working title “Planes, Trains, and Wheelchairs”, but that has been put on hold because of COVID.“COVID has been very difficult for me. As someone who is already ventilated, I know that if I get COVID, I would probably not survive, so I was very much isolated for many months. My father brought groceries in for me and my grandmother, who is also vulnerable because of her age, and we had to make sure that the caregivers, who I depend on, have been very careful as well. It has not been an easy time.”

He ended up in hospital a few times in the last year or so, and because he is ventilated he must be in the Intensive Care Unit whenever he is admitted to hospital. He was in hospital during the time when COVID cases had overwhelmed the ICU's in Peel Region and Toronto and the overflow was filling up the Kingston Health Sciences Centre ICU, so he was in a temporary unit with another ventilated patient (not a COVID patient).

But with his health improving he has stepped up his consulting work.

The travel documentary is still in the works,” he said, “and as soon as we can travel safely we will start working on it again.”

His decision to seek political office is based on his commitment to some of the issues that he has personal experience with, such as the healthcare system accessibility, and LGBTQ rights, as well as others

“The legislature in Toronto has never really had someone with a visible disability represent a riding and it is time that we change that. With there being roughly 2.9 million Ontarians living with some form of disability it is time that we elect someone who fights for the rights of people with disabilities and accessibility. The previous governments have failed people with disabilities repeatedly and it is time that the NDP change that and make the difference needed,” he said.

He started working towards the nomination before COVID, in the fall of 2019. A lifelong NDP supporter, he joined the Lanark Frontenac Kingston riding association at that time, and has been working with them ever since, aiming towards the 2022 election. The NDP policies on Pharmacare and social service improvements are priorities for him.

“The priorities I want to fight for in this election are healthcare, support for small businesses, climate change, support for farmers, affordable housing, access to high-speed Internet, tourism, and accessibility. As a University graduate with student loans, I will also fight to have student loans forgiven. These are all issues that we face in the riding of Lanark Frontenac Kingston.”

To contact Drew Cumpson about his political campaign, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(Other major parties have already named candidates for the 2022 election. The Liberal Party candidate is Amanda Pulker-Mok, and the Conservative candidate is John Jordan. The incumbent MPP is Randy Hillier. He was elected as a Conservative and was ejected from the caucus in 2019 and is sitting as an independent. He has not announced his intentions regarding the 2022 election, to our knowledge.)