Derek Sloan speaks to a crowd filling the gym at Tweed Elementary School Saturday, December 8, 2018. With him are his wife Jen and one of their three children. (Photo: John Spitters/Quinte News)
A young lawyer who lives on 30 acres of land north of Belleville will be the standard-bearer for the Conservative Party of Canada in Hastings-Lennox and Addington riding.
Derek Sloan defeated three other candidates; former Belleville councillor Jackie Denyes, Hastings County Small Business Coordinator Mark Hanley, and lawyer Michael J. Collins of Tweed.
The candidates all made seven minute presentations to about 300 people in the gymnasium at Tweed Elementary School, after which voting by ranked ballot occurred.
Voting ran from from noon until 2:30.
Sloan was declared the winner after the second round of counting at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon.
Sloan’s speech was a fiery one as he declared the Liberals would ruin the nation’s economy if allowed to continue to run the country. He promised to bring more youth into the Conservative party.
“The Liberals won their majority last time by winning the youth vote. We have to get more involved with young people or we’re done. If we succeed with youth our common sense ideas could see us guiding the country for decades.”
As all candidates did, Sloan slammed the Liberal carbon tax, saying it would hurt rural areas like Hastings-Lennox and Addington, much more than big cities.
And, just as the other candidates had, Sloan wanted nothing to do with the Liberal party’s social agenda. “They think if you like guns, you’re a murderer. If you like strong borders, you’re intolerant of other races and cultures.”
Sloan also slammed Prime Minister Trudeau for being “all flash and no substance”.
He suggested current MP for Hastings-Lennox and Addington Mike Bossio was much the same as Trudeau.
“I will outwork, outgun, and outsmart Bossio!”
The Hastings-Lennox and Addington Conservative party has about 1,100 members.
The federal election will be held in October.
