Teacher Jen Deck Introduced as NDP Candidate For Peterborough-Kawartha In Provincial Election
/Teacher Jen Deck joins the NDP for the Ontario Provincial Election as she was introduced by party leader Andrea Horwath at the Peterborough Lift Lock Tuesday afternoon.
Jen Deck (left) with her dog Niko (middle) and NDP leader Andrea Horwarth (right) at the Peterborough Lift Lock. Horwath toured the Peterborough Tour Guild following the announcement. Photo by David Tuan Bui.
Deck will be chosen as the NDP’s candidate for Peterborough-Kawartha at a nomination meeting this Thursday.
"We need change now," she said after being introduced. "The system has failed us. Covid has taught us that we need to in our public services, in our healthcare, in our public education so that we can survive the bumps in the road."
LIVE - Excited to be in Peterborough welcoming education leader Jen Deck as our NDP candidate in Peterborough—Kawartha! Together, we'll start fixing what matters most so folks can build their best lives. #onpoli https://t.co/PdCbrUwqtN
— Andrea Horwath (@AndreaHorwath) April 26, 2022
Deck has been a teacher for 19 years in Peterborough. She has taught the Young Mom’s Program at Peterborough Alternative & Continuing Education; Medically Fragile Learning and Life, Science and Family Studies at Crestwood Secondary School and served as president of the Elementary Occasional Teachers.
"Education was poorly funded going into the Covid pandemic," said Deck. "Our classes are overcrowded, we do not have enough support staff to help deal with dysregulation.
With her experience in the classroom, Deck has made education a priority if elected.
“We have students who struggle to regulate their behaviour more so now after Covid, after two years of chaos but this was in place before that,” she said. “This was a problem. We need more teachers, we need more education staff, we need to fund public education and we can't be playing with this idea of moving to vouchers or some kind of privatized education system because it will fail everyone."
Deck addressed healthcare and caring for small and medium businesses as other major areas of focus.
She will run against the following candidates for the June 2 election:
MPP Dave Smith, incumbent Progressive Conservative Party
Greg Dempsey, Liberal Party
Robert Gibson, Green Party
Tom Marazzo, Ontario Party
