Badawey says there will be three top Fort Erie issues if re-elected in new Niagara South riding

Fort Erie will no longer be part of the Niagara Falls riding when voters head to the polls for a federal election later this year.

The border town has had the same representation federally and provincially as Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake for many years, but when an election takes place no later than October 20 this year, local voters will select a candidate in the Niagara South riding, which will cover Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Thorold, and Welland, a reconfiguration of the current Niagara Centre riding.

Currently serving as member of Parliament for that area if Liberal Vance Badawey, whose early political career started in Port Colborne.

After a term as a city councillor, he was mayor of Fort Erie’s Highway 3 neighbour from 1997 to 2003 and again from 2016 to 2014.

Since 2015, he has been an MP.

In an interview with Fort Erie Radio this week, he said he is “definitely” running in the 2025 election for the new Niagara South riding and that he is eager to work with local officials in Fort Erie, a town he said he spent many years in with friends he made as a student at Notre Dame High School in Welland.

He also had a “brief stint” playing for the Fort Erie Meteors in the early 1980s.

Two of his daughters currently live in Fort Erie.

Badawey said he has already had conversations with Mayor Wayne Redekop, a fellow Niagara politician he has known for many years, about important issues he will tackle if he is re-elected later this year.

“My intention is to get to work right now,” said Badawey.

There are three major issues he said will be his focus for Fort Erie.

One is the effort to preserve services at Niagara Health’s Douglas Memorial site, which is slated for closure in 2028.

“We will continue to fight to keep the urgent care centre in Fort Erie,” he said.

Another file is to grow an ongoing partnership with Sheridan College and Fort Erie International Academy, which currently offers an education in trades for international students out of the former Fort Erie Secondary School.

Pulling in infrastructure funding for the town is also a priority.

Fort Erie “hasn’t received a lot of attention federally” on infrastructure support, he said.

He also said he plans to have Fort Erie included in a memorandum of understanding with the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority as part of the Niagara Ports plan, an initiative to bolster trade along waterways such as the Welland Canal.

Fort Erie’s current representative in Ottawa is Conservative Tony Baldinelli.

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