Progressive Conservative candidate and incumbent for Perth-Wellington Matthew Rae has won a second straight term as MPP in the provincial election.
First elected as the MPP for the riding in 2022, Rae replaced previous PC MPP Randy Pettapiece, who chose to retire from politics. Rae won his riding with 46.8 percent of the vote when he was first elected.
Rae previously served as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in his previous term. Additionally, he also served as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education in the past.
He was also the Vice-Chair on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and was a permeant member of the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy.
Following his re-election at his election night party at the Mitchell Golf Club, Rae said he's looking forward to getting back to work and securing more key funding for his riding. Rae says in particular, there are a number of key things he wants to address for his constituents, including infrastructure investments, housing enabling infrastructure and policies, and more improvements to local healthcare.
"Obviously more healthcare investments. We were able to secure some primary care expansion. More needs to be done and our government committed to spending $1.8 billion over the next four years to ensure that everyone who wants to access a primary care provider by 2029 can do so, so obviously I'll be working hard to ensure that some of that money flows into communities in Perth-Wellington," Rae stated.
On top of getting back to work for his constituents on a number of fronts, Donald Trump's ongoing tariff threats are top of mind. Rae says those ongoing threats represent an "existential crisis" and he stresses that his party is ready to fight them if and when they arrive. Rae says that starts with being there for Ontario workers, which could include more investments in skill development.
"Whether it's more skills development funding for individuals who may need to re-train or-re-skill, or is it more funding, as well, for mobile training centres, which already exist but sort of super-charging those services if needed, God forbid, if there are layoffs associated with Trump's tariffs," Rae added.
Additionally, Rae says he will staunchly defend the rich agricultural sector in his riding and beyond, with a need for potentially expanding processing capacity in Ontario.
"It really is working with our agriculture sector, as well, getting more processing in Ontario built. Many of our hogs, for example, are shipped across the border into Michigan or the U.S. Midwest to processed and then the pork chops come back. So, it really is getting some more capacity in Ontario that's gonna be a key focus for my next four years," said Rae.