18-Year-Old Student Zach Hatton Is Running For City Council

Eighteen-year-old community advocate Zach Hatton is running for City Council in Northcrest Ward in the upcoming October election. The Grade 12 student at St. Peter Secondary School has a passion for politics, having run for the New Democratic Party in this riding last year. 

Hatton, who will be attending Trent University in the Fall in the Teacher's Education stream while pursing an Arts degree, tells PTBOCanada he is excited about this opportunity and want to help "build and position the city in an even more progressive place." The incumbents in Northcrest Ward are Andrew Beamer and Dave Haacke.

Hatton believes he has a lot to offer the city and constituents in his ward:

“I’m proud to have been born and raised within this community," Hatton says. "I’m connected to our area through my own personal connections and experiences, and they’ve afforded me a great understanding of Peterborough as a whole. My knowledge will be beneficial to our community when applied to the many pressing issues at City Hall right now.”

Hatton says his great pride in the community played a major role in his decision. Indeed, by deciding to attend Trent University in the Fall, he plans to call Peterborough home for many years to come.

Hatton volunteers at many different places including YourTV (formerly CogecoTV), where he has followed local political issues closely while working on many campaigns at all levels of government—including his own personal run recently for the nomination of the New Democratic Party of Ontario.

Hatton, who intends to use social media aggressively throughout the campaign—namely Twitter and Facebook—will be filing his nomination papers at City Hall on May 1st. You can reach him here for more info.

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17-Year-Old St. Peter's High School Student To Seek New Democratic Party Nomination In Peterborough-Kawartha

Zach Hatton, a 17-year-old (he turns 18 in January, making him eligible to run on Election Day, which is June 7th, 2018) entering Grade 12 at St. Peter Secondary School, will be announcing his candidacy to run for New Democratic Party Nomination in this riding on Thursday (July 20th) afternoon at a press conference at Millennium Park behind the Silver Bean Café.

Photo by SC Photography

"My friends and family have been so supportive of my decision," the politically-engaged student tells PTBOCanada. "It has been truly humbling the support I have received from everyone. I am choosing to run at this time because this election is crucial and it is important to get ideas on the table from all sides. Youth are being pushed aside in government with the two other major parties and this time we must stand up and say the youth in this province matter."

Photo by SC Photography

"I believe that even though I am so young, my experiences can help this riding," Hatton tells PTBOCanada of running in the Ontario election. "I have been a volunteer for many years and have worked on three campaigns already and have been around politics forever.  I have been very involved since 2014 but have always had a big interest and have known I wanted to do this as my career for the people of this riding."

Photo by SC Photography

Hatton says he will be using social media aggressively during his campaign for MPP to spread his campaign messages. He will have Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube accounts activated in the coming days and will be using all of them to get his message out under the username ZachHatton4Change to spread the word to youth and beyond.

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