Meet the 13 candidates on the ballot for Fort Erie town council

Thirteen candidates are running for four seats on Fort Erie town council in the October 26 municipal election.

Incumbents are running again in all four of the contested wards, Wards 2 to 5. Ward 1 Councillor George McDermott and Ward 6 Councillor Ann-Marie Noyes were acclaimed when nominations closed in August.

Here’s a look at who’s running in each ward, based on the candidates’ own campaign materials. Contact information and campaign websites for every candidate are posted on the Town of Fort Erie website.

WARD 2

Nick Dubanow is seeking a third term as the Ward 2 councillor. He worked for more than a decade at Crescent Flooring before returning to a career in information technology, and he chairs Community Living Fort Erie.

Dubanow fought for Douglas Memorial Hospital’s future, helped advance the Lions Douglas Heights affordable seniors’ housing expansion and supported Fort Erie’s first comprehensive traffic-calming project on Concession Road. He opposed the former regional chair’s bid to amalgamate Niagara’s municipalities and is campaigning to keep defending Fort Erie’s independence.

Jon Nadeau has worked in retail management and as a flooring tradesman. He and his wife, Dana, who own the Manic Maker in Bridgeburg, have built two small businesses in Fort Erie. Caring for his late son, Tanner, who had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, shaped Nadeau’s belief that health care must stay close to home.

Nadeau wants to fight for Douglas Memorial, build attainable housing and protect Fort Erie’s small-town identity. He also wants to grow tourism along Ward 2’s shoreline, where Lake Erie meets the Niagara River.

WARD 3

Darren Flagg is seeking a second term in Ward 3, which he first won in 2022. He founded Benner Funeral Services and still manages both Benner and Williams Funeral Services, which he sold to Houston-based Service Corporation International earlier this year.

Flagg chaired Corporate and Community Services this past term. He is campaigning on decisions that do not leave the next generation paying the bill, particularly on taxes, infrastructure, health care and the environment.

Jennifer Priestley runs SJP Paralegal Services in Ridgeway and has more than 30 years of paralegal experience. She is a qualified mediator and an ordained pastoral chaplain, and she sits on the boards of the Fort Erie SPCA and the Fort Erie Municipal Non-Profit Housing Corporation.

Priestley wants safer neighbourhoods and roads, support for local businesses and protection for the shoreline. She also wants more housing options and better attention to health-care access.

Andrew Holdsworth, a process operator for Niagara Region, filed on August 20, one day before nominations closed. He grew up in Fort Erie, is raising his family in town and has served as a volunteer firefighter and on the Environmental Advisory Committee.

Holdsworth wants Fort Erie’s growth managed so it never overwhelms the town’s infrastructure or services. He also wants to help restore the services Douglas Memorial has lost and make local government more open and accountable to residents.

WARD 4

Joan Christensen is seeking a second term in Ward 4. She spent 40 years in public policy on health care, community services and housing, including as a senior policy adviser for Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Christensen credits this council with infrastructure upgrades, flood protection, new housing policies and a push for 24-hour urgent care at Douglas Memorial. She wants to keep working on local health care, responsible growth and environmental protection, and to make Fort Erie a voice senior governments listen to.

Matt Paul grew up in Wainfleet and has spent more than two decades in financial services, banking and insurance. He served on a transit advisory committee in Rockland, Ont., and founded Live Human Chess, community events in Ottawa and Niagara that raise money for homelessness and dementia causes.

Paul wants every town decision to start with a clear goal and a known cost, with results measured and reported back to residents. He also wants to control taxes and spending, fix roads and drainage and defend health care at Douglas Memorial.

Daniel Turner works in Niagara Region’s economic development office and was previously an economic development officer with the Town of Fort Erie. He has a master’s degree in business economics and is a volunteer firefighter at Ridgeway Station 4.

Turner argues Fort Erie deserves the same kind of provincial hospital investment as Grimsby, which received a nearly $250-million hospital, and he is campaigning to keep 24-hour urgent care in town. He wants a review of the town’s procurement policy, more manufacturing investment to ease the tax load on homeowners and more police patrols in Ridgeway.

Tavis McGlashan has lived in Ridgeway for more than 50 years and has run a small business in the village with his wife, Janice, for 13 years. He bills himself as the only Ward 4 candidate who lives and works in the ward, which Ontario law does not require.

McGlashan’s top priorities include fixing Gorham Road, which he calls dangerous for drivers and pedestrians, and connecting Ridgeway’s broken sidewalks. He supports 24-hour urgent care in Fort Erie, but he argues Douglas Memorial’s 90-year-old building is too costly to be the long-term answer.

WARD 5

Tom Lewis is seeking another term in Ward 5, a seat he first won in 2003 at age 19 and won again in 2022 after moving back to Crystal Beach. He is executive director of the Poultry Industry Council in Guelph. Before returning to council, he led a petition that gathered more than 570 signatures after a fence blocked a public waterfront access in Crystal Beach.

On council, Lewis backed a plan to put more than $215,000 toward revitalizing Crystal Beach and pushed to double the town’s grant to Advancing Crystal Beach’s tourism hub. He challenged a regional amalgamation proposal that came without financial evidence it would lower taxes. His priorities include roads, sidewalks and drainage, pedestrian safety and protecting the waterfront.

Thomas Mete grew up working at his parents’ business, Ridgeway Hockey, and graduated from Harvard University with an economics degree in May. He chaired the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee, where he pushed for free admission to Bay Beach for children.

Mete wants to freeze property taxes, which rose 4.95 per cent in 2025 according to his campaign, and cut the more than $500,000 his campaign says the town spent on outside consultants. He also wants leaking water pipes fixed and the Crystal Ridge Arena renovated.

Scott Boumeester is president of Advancing Crystal Beach, a non-profit that runs discounted produce markets for residents facing food insecurity and raises bursary money for local graduates. He brings 35 years of business leadership experience to the race.

If elected, Boumeester promises to hold a Ward 5 town hall within 30 days of taking office. He also wants the town budget reviewed line by line, and he wants Fort Erie to keep fighting for 24-hour urgent care at Douglas Memorial while preparing a backup plan with Niagara Health.

Kassandra Ryerson has worked in sales and corporate leadership across Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, managing budgets and leading teams of more than 60 employees. She has taken part in shoreline cleanups in Crystal Beach, and her interest in protecting Marcy’s Woods dates to her high school environmental club.

Ryerson wants growth that respects Crystal Beach’s character, along with better traffic flow, more parking and safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists. She also wants year-round business growth, better access to health care for seniors and families, and protection for Crystal Beach’s shoreline and history.

Online voting opens October 5 at 10 a.m. and closes October 26 at 8 p.m. Advance polls will open at the Fort Erie Leisureplex banquet hall on October 14 and October 17 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with the same hours on election day.

Stay Informed

Events, offers, contests, and breaking news, all delivered straight to your inbox.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Subscribe