Former regional councillor joins crowded Liberal race in new King-Vaughan riding

YorkRegion.com
Jan. 31, 2015
By Tim Kelly

Calling herself an “incredibly strong, ideal candidate”, former Vaughan regional councillor Deb Schulte served notice that she’ll be gunning for the federal Liberal nomination in the new riding of King-Vaughan.

Schulte, who served on Vaughan council from 2010-14 before losing in October to a fellow Liberal she beat in 2010, Mario Ferri, said in an interview this week she wasn’t ready to quit political life.

The 55-year-old Woodbridge resident, who worked as an engineer at Bombardier for 22 years before retiring in 2004, said some kind words spoken by Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Beviliqua, himself a 22-year-long Liberal MP, spurred her to seek the nomination.

“On Dec. 1, when I was sitting in council chambers, and the mayor did a little acknowledgement of me, I sat there and I thought...I can’t go home and hang up my shingle. I can’t, I’ve got to carry on. It’s inspired me. That’s the day that I decided (to go for the nomination).”

Schulte, who developed a reputation for thoroughly researching city and regional files during her term of council and for speaking her mind, realizes being a party follower is a different beast.

She compared it to her two decades with Bombardier.

“I came out of 22 years of business. I’m sorry I didn’t get to go around the company and tell them, this is the way I want it to be," she said.

Schulte joins a crowded field that includes Major Abdul Khalifa, Gary Gladstone and Carmine Tucci, all of whom have been green lit to run for the nomination by the party’s head office in Ottawa. That means they have submitted their party nomination papers and have survived a rigorous scrutinizing process allowing them to officially put their names forward to sign up supporters. They can put their names on the ballot for a nomination meeting at a time and place that has yet to be determined.

Schulte sent her nomination papers to head office in late December and was only green-lit last week. Also seeking the nomination are John Dowd and former Thornhill Liberal MPP Mario Racco, husband of current Vaughan Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco.