Ontario Votes 2025: Hamilton East-Stoney Creek

Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, a lower-city riding stretching east from Hamilton's industrial sector to past Fifty Road, was an Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) stronghold for years until the 2022 election, when it went to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. 

Before that election, former NDP MPP Paul Miller was removed from the party's caucus for allegedly being a member of an Islamophobic Facebook Group. He ran as an independent. 

Now, PC incumbent Neil Lumsden, a former Tiger-Cats football player and the current Minister of Sport, is hoping to hold onto the riding.

Three of Lumsden's challengers – NDP candidate Zaigham Butt, an accountant and union leader; Green Party candidate Pascale Marchand, a political staffer in Hamilton's Ward 4 office; and Liberal candidate Heino Doessing, an economist on leave from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan – faced off at a debate on Wednesday. Lumsden did not attend, one of many PC candidates across the province to decline participation in debates. Heather Curnew is running for the Ontario Party. Wieslawa Derlatka is the New Blue Party candidate and Drew Garvie is the Communist Party candidate.

Local issues that came up that night included maintaining jobs in the face of coming American tariffs, industrial emissions, the long-awaited Confederation GO station, housing affordability and health care access, particularly in light of the closure announcement of East Region Mental Health Services in the riding.

Elections Ontario lists a population of 112,028 in Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, a riding that was created in 2003 by merging the old ridings of Hamilton East and Stoney Creek and was first contested in 2007. According to Statistics Canada, the average family has three people, and only about 11,000 people in the riding live alone. Residents' median income in 2020 was $36,400.

Most residents listed English as their mother tongue, but there were thousands of Punjabi, Urdu, Spanish, and Italian speakers, as well as many thousands who speak Slavic languages.

Here are the candidates on the ballot, according to Elections Ontario. CBC Hamilton distributed a questionnaire to the candidates of the four largest parties.

Zaigham Butt, NDP

Zaigham Butt did not fill out CBC Hamilton's questionnaire. He was the NDP's candidate in this riding in the last election, after former MPP Miller was ousted from the party.

He is a recipient of the Order of Hamilton, which he earned in 2021 for volunteer efforts including beach cleaning, graffiti removal and being part of the Pakistan Business Association (PBA), which helped deliver monthly food hampers to families struggling during the pandemic.

He is union president of the Hamilton subgroup of The Professional Institute of the Public Service AFS (Audit, Financial and Scientific).

Heino Doessing, Liberal

Doessing did not fill out CBC Hamilton's questionnaire.

He served as a municipal councillor in Denmark, where he was born, before moving to Canada.

Doessing is an economist and manager of valuation for the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, according to his LinkedIn profile, and lives in the riding with his partner and two children. His website lists fighting for the Greenbelt among his priorities, along with improving affordability, education, healthcare and the economy.

Neil Lumsden, PC

Neil Lumsden did not fill out CBC Hamilton's questionnaire.

He has been the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MPP since 2022. His campaign's website lists contributions his government has made to the local area since then, including $1.03 billion to hire more educators and $5.3 million for local hospitals to work on reducing wait times.

Lumsden did not attend Cable 14's debate for the riding alongside the other major parties in the election.

Pascale Marchand, Green Party

Pascale Marchand, 42, is a constituency assistant in Hamilton's Ward 4 office, under Coun. Tammy Hwang, a job she began after running against Hwang in the previous municipal election. Though, she's currently on a leave of absence, she said.  

Marchand is a long-time resident of her riding, and said for years she's seen gaps in the system. She describes herself as an advocate for francophone, Indigenous and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, as well as active transportation, environmental justice and accessibility.

"I do the work, and I get it done collaboratively," she said. "Based on my recent local government experience, I have the skills and knowledge to ensure that the residents of Winona, Fruitland, Stoney Creek, and East Hamilton are supported."

Also running

• Heather Curnew, Ontario Party: At Wednesday's televised debate on Cable 14, Curnew pledged to fight against the recognition of gender-diverse individuals and to limit the information children are taught about gender in schools. 
• Wieslawa Derlatka, New Blue Party: Little information is available online for Wieslawa Derlatka, other than a letter she wrote to the Stoney Creek News in 2018 against decriminalizing drugs. The New Blue Party hopes to stop "'woke' activism… by eliminating critical race theory, gender identity theory, and all DEI initiatives from government." 
• Drew Garvie, Communist Party: Drew Garvie has been the Ontario leader of the Communist Party of Canada since 2019. In 2019, he said the party was hoping to "build the fight against corporate greed" and to "put people's needs before corporate greed."