Newly re-elected Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates promised Thursday night to continue to fight for “my community, whether it’s Fort Erie, Niagara-on-the-Lake or Niagara Falls,” with as much passion and heart as he can.
Gates was speaking to the media after addressing his supporters at his team’s celebration at Niagara Falls restaurant Chip & Charlies. The man many refer to as “Gatesy” had just run away with his fifth straight victory in the riding, capturing 29,549 votes for a 55 per cent share. That put him far ahead of PC candidate Ruth-Ann Nieuesteeg with 18,569 and the Liberal Party’s Shafoli Kapur with 3,398. Four other candidates also ran in the riding.
Gates held on to his seat for the NDP in the face of a third straight majority for Doug Ford’s Conservatives, who won 80 seats, but only one of the four representing Niagara ridings.
“I think it’s because I work extremely hard,” said the former auto worker and Unifor local president. “I show up to as many events as I can and support every organization. Quite frankly, I'm a pretty honest guy and people can trust me.”
Niagara Falls mayor Jim Diodati, St. Catharines mayor Mat Siscoe and Welland mayor Frank Campion all came out during the short election campaign in support of Ford and, by default, backing the PC candidates in their ridings. But like Gates, fellow NDP MPPs Jennie Stevens and Jeff Burtch won re-election despite those endorsements.
“I think the Niagara region has served quite well with NDP MPPs in this region.,” Gates said Thursday, “I have one thing to say to Mayor Diodati - this is the second or third time that he’s endorsed the other candidate. I want to thank him because every time he endorses somebody else, I win.”
Though NOTL counc. Erwin Wiens also spoke publicly in support of Ford, Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa refused to jump on the same bandwagon as his peers from the larger muncipalities.
“I want to congratulate Wayne; he ran a great campaign,” Zalepa told The Local today. “He connects well with his constituents in our town and across the riding and works extremely hard. It’s great to see him returning. He keeps in touch with me and is always available when I reach out to him to help us with things.”
There were no all-candidate debates between the seven vying for the seat during the run-up to Feb. 27. That was common across the province as many PC candidates refused to participate in such events or even speak to the media.
“They should talk to the media,” he said. “If you want to put your name forward, you want to take my job, you should participate in the debates. You should talk to the TV and radio stations. I consider it a privilege when they want to interview me. It’s your responsibility.”
Known for the passion he puts toward fighting for the needs of his riding, Gates was displaying a different emotion on election night. As he stood beside his wife Rita, delivering his thank you speech to his supporters, he fought back tears, something rarely seen from the former Niagara Falls city councillor.
“I’m supposed to be a tough guy,” he told The Local. “But tonight was very emotional because I believe they (Nieuwesteeg’s team) threw everything at us, including some of the comments about me, which weren’t accurate. And I notice a lot of the guys that are kind of rich in this community threw a lot of money behind the other candidates.”
Now 11 years into his mandate to represent the Niagara Falls riding, Gates outlined some of the successes that have come about during that time.
Though he was a member of the opposition, he says he fought hard for a nurse practitioner in NOTL, Go Train service to the region, and the new South Niagara hospital currently under construction.
He added that his constituents shouldn’t expect many changes in his style, commitment or the issues he plans to continue to fight for.
“I want to make sure over the next four years I get the prostate cancer bill passed,” he said. “I’m tired of watching men die - we had 13 die today as we had this election. And I want to save our urgent care centre - you can’t have the number of seniors that we have in this riding and then shut down urgent care centres like they've done in Fort Erie. We need it open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
Getting 106 more doctors in Niagara is also on his to-do list. Gates went on to lament that 2.4 million people in Ontario, “one of the richest provinces in the country,” don’t have a family doctor. And he vowed to fight to keep health care publicly owned and delivered.
Gates also mentioned housing, the cost of groceries and rent control as important issues he plans to push Ford’s government on for the next four years.
One thing that didn’t come up often in Gates’ campaign was the looming threat of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, despite Premier Ford positioning himself and his party as the best choices to fight against a possible trade war with the USA. But he did admit it is an important item on the agenda moving forward.
“We have to make sure we're buying local, buying Canadian,” Gates opined. Whether it's the auto industry, agriculture, tourism, whatever, this country has to make sure they protect the workers and do whatever we can to make sure that we're standing up for Ontario and Canada.”
“All I want to do is what's best for my constituents; what's best for the province of Ontario,” he concluded. “The the one thing Ford doesn't know is how hard I work every single day, what I've done for 365 days a year for 11 years.”
