The Wellington-Halton Hills Liberal riding association has nominated Barry Peters as its candidate for whenever the next federal election is called.
Peters, 28, has worked in municipal politics for the last six years and is currently an executive assistant and senior policy advisor to a Toronto city councillor. Previous to that, he worked as a constituency assistant and advisor to a Toronto city councillor in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.
Peters grew up in Rockwood since he was 6, and has been commuting to Toronto. “I still live there, and I don’t want to leave,” he said.
He won the nomination by acclamation, but he said he has no illusions about the coming election.
“It’s a tough riding,” he said. I’m young. I have a lot of opportunities ahead of me … I’m not going to go away.”
He noted the election could come as early as April, or it might not take place until next year.
He said to date, he has several issues, with the deficit, the economy, and climate change being among the biggest for electors.
He noted it could be difficult to attack Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the the deficit because, “At the end of the day, stimulus funding was something the Liberals called for.”
And, he said, without tax cuts, the recession could last longer, so there are some major challenges to getting Canada back on track.
“We’re in this pickle. We have this deficit because were unwilling to look at tax increase and cutting program spending.”
He said he is just beginning to search for answers to determine “what our options are.”
Peters is no stranger to politics. He worked on former Guelph-Wellington MP Brenda Chamberlains campaign back when he was in high school.
He said he is young, and he hopes to get youth involved in this campaign and politics in general.
“The decisions made today affect my generation,” he said.
He added that working at the municipal level he has seen how interested people are in finding solutions to problems, and he hopes to encourage that “community engagement.”
Before working in government, Peters spent four years in the information technology recruiting industry where he managed Fortune 500 accounts and worked with thousands of job applicants helping to find the best and most suitable careers for them.
He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Guelph.
Volunteerism is an important aspect of his life, as he has volunteered extensively with The Friends of the HMCS Toronto (Navy); the Canadian-Afghanistan Friendship Organization (CAFO); The Argos Foundation; and the Canadian Opera Company’s Operanation Event.
He has also been the publicist for the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival for the past two years.
