Hastings-Lennox and Addington New Democratic Party has named Eric DePoe as their candidate for the June 2 provincial election.
The Napanee resident currently maintains a paralegal practice where he represents both union and non-union workers with WSIB claims. Previously he ran the Waterfall Café in Yarker for 17 years and worked as a mail sorter for Canada Post for 28 years.
“I love my community and I am committed to helping families by making life more affordable and helping them access the services they depend on like health care,” DePoe said in a release on the NDP website. “We need to protect the rights of workers and small businesses that have been hit hard by this pandemic. That means investing in our health care, our schools, and seniors care. We need to make sure our small businesses get the support they need for a full recovery. With Andrea Horwath and the NDP, you know you have a team on your side for a change.”
DePoe has earned the endorsement of Ottawa Centre MPP and fellow NDP member Joel Harden.
“Eric is exactly the kind of community builder that families need right now,” said Harden. “He’s focused on fighting for the rights of workers, on helping build up local small business, and making investments in schools, hiring more health care workers, and making life more affordable for working people. We need Eric on our NDP team to help fix our services left broken after 15 years of Liberal government and four years of Doug Ford’s cuts.”
DePoe is a member of the citizens’ committee that took on and eventually halted Waste Management’s efforts to expand the Richmond landfill. He is also a founding member of the Yarker and Colebrook Community Association where he took on a leadership role in the fight to save Yarker Family School and continues to play a role on the board of the Yarker Family Market.
DePoe joins Ted Darby (Liberals), Ric Bresee (Conservatives) and Derek Sloan (Ontario Party) as candidates who have declared their intent to run in the Hasting-Lennox and Addington riding in June’s provincial election.