Bill King, a current municipal councilor for Lanark Highlands has thrown his name in the ring to become the provincial PC candidate for the Lanark Frontenac Kingston riding. While the local Progressive Conservative riding committee has not yet announced its selection date or process, King is the second person to give notice of his intent, the other being North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins. As current MPP Randy Hillier is now sitting as an independent, having been turfed from the PC caucus by Premier Doug Ford in 2019, this riding is without a PC candidate and will need to select one before the 2022 provincial election.
King brings a fair amount of experience to the table, having worked for a newly elected MPP, Mike Harris, starting shortly after his election in 1981 through to 1997. He also spent 6 years as a senior aide for the federal Conservatives in Ottawa. On top of his Lanark Highlands councilor duties, King is the chief of staff for federal Conservative MP Scott Aitchinson of Ontario’s Parry Sound Muskoka riding.
He told Hometown News the major issues facing Lanark Frontenac Kingston are the pandemic, (specifically protecting people from its health and economic risks), job creation and support for the vulnerable, and recovery on both the financial and health fronts, (looking forward to the approval and distribution of a safe vaccine).
When asked how he would connect with the wide variety of voters in a geographically large, but sparsely populated riding, his response was “one person at a time”. He added that since moving to this area 12 years ago, he has been very involved in a number of areas and he plans on using available communication technology to its full extent to learn about what constituents are being challenged by and how he can help.
When responding to the question of how he would balance his current workload with the additional tasks of running for a candidacy, he responded that as he loves all the work he’s currently involved in and has demonstrated his time management skills successfully to date, this doesn’t pose a problem. He told Hometown news he plans on bringing a positive voice and can-do attitude to this job, (if successful) as he has to everything else he’s tackled.