Sarah Jama Addresses Concerns as Independent Candidate for Hamilton Centre

Progressive Conservative candidate Sarah Bokhari didn't participate due to 'scheduling conflict.'

It's a question Sarah Jama often addresses when door-knocking: What can she do for Hamilton Centre as an independent candidate?

Some -- like competing NDP candidate Robin Lennox -- have suggested the riding's residents would be better off with an MPP that has the support of a party aiming to form government.

In a live debate on Cable 14 on Tuesday, Jama said during her time as an independent MPP, she put forward 20 motions "drafted by community groups," weighed in on bills and participated in committees "where the hard work goes in."

"I've been able to do a lot of work to make sure that ideas from across the riding are being tabled over and over again," she said.

Jama is running for re-election in the riding after the New Democrats decided against welcoming back the activist ousted from the party over controversial comments on the Israel-Hamas war.

She joined candidates Lucia Iannantuono representing the Ontario Greens, Lennox for the New Democrats and Eileen Walker for the Ontario Liberal Party for the first of several Hamilton-area riding debates Tuesday. (PC candidate Sarah Bokhari, who also ran in the riding for the party in 2022, didn't participate due to a "scheduling conflict," her campaign team said.)

Lennox, a doctor and the new NDP candidate in the historically orange riding, argued her party is the official opposition and has a chance at displacing a "wave of conservatism" spreading across North America.

"While I think it's wonderful to have many voices in the conversation, we also need to be able to form a movement toward progressive governance," she said. "The only way we're going to do that is if we build power within a party."

Jama, who has often voted with the NDP in the legislature, previously said anyone who runs for the party in Hamilton Centre "risks splitting the vote."

But when asked about the prospect of vote-splitting with her former party, Jama said Tuesday that the people she had met at the door are "excited about a new way of doing politics, that moves away from the status quo of picking one party or another."

Lennox said she isn't especially concerned that a choice between two candidates who may share views would divide voters, noting she continues to see a "vibrant NDP community" in Hamilton Centre.

Walker, meanwhile, said undecided voters she's encountered are on the fence between the Liberals and the NDP.

"Who is it that (Tory leader) Doug Ford seems to be the most afraid of? Who does he attack all the time? It's always the Liberals," she later said.

Candidates debated issues of homelessness, health care, housing affordability and taxation on Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights:

• On homelessness and encampments, Jama said Hamilton needs rent control and "real investments" from the province into non-market and supportive housing, while Lennox offered the NDP's plan for 60,000 new supportive-housing units the party says will save money in health care, social service and justice costs.
• Iannantuono said there should be "fixed-term, low-rate financing" to non-profit builders to expedite development.
• Walker said the province has been "wholly neglectful" in funding housing, and that it needs to fund and work with municipalities.
• Candidates agreed safe-consumption sites are "vital," with Walker adding they shouldn't be in neighbourhoods with children or near schools.

Liberal and Green candidates sparred over the Greens' plan to increase taxes for heavy emitters already facing U.S. tariffs. "Are we going to bury them, are we going to increase our unemployment?" Walker asked. Iannantuono said residents' health doesn't need to be put at risk to keep people employed. "Those 9,000 jobs can be secured through investments that will make our industry cleaner. ... We have, hopefully coming through in Hamilton, a transition to real 'green steel."

Lennox accused the Ontario Liberals of moving toward the "centre-right" as they rebuild, becoming a "Conservative Party-lite." "Other people would say that we're centre-left, so I'm a little surprised to hear you say that," Walker responded.

Also running in the riding are Mitch Novosad, representing the New Blue Party; and Nathalie Xian Yi Yan, who is running as an independent.