Kingston and the Islands Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Gerretsen is aiming for a third consecutive victory in the federal election.
Mark Gerretsen, ArtSci ’06, will be running as a Liberal Party MP candidate in the federal election. After Parliament was prorogued in January, the temporary suspension gave the Liberals time to choose a new leader. Mark Carney was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party on March 9 and is expected to call a snap federal election on Sunday, potentially setting the stage for a vote as early as April 28.
Gerretsen, who holds an economics degree from Queen’s, is seeking re-election as the incumbent MP. First elected in 2019 and reelected in 2021, he previously worked as a City Councilor from 2006 to 2010 and served as Kingston’s Mayor from 2010 to 2014.
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In an interview with The Journal, Gerretsen said his initial motivation to seek office and his continued momentum stems from the same reason—his children.
“Quite frankly, I’m worried about the world that my children will grow up in. I have a 21-year-old, an eight-year-old, and I have a six-year-old, and I’m genuinely worried with what’s going on in the United States and with Donald Trump and his threats on our sovereignty and his trade war that he’s started with us,” Gerretsen said.
The current MP highlighted key issues he plans to center his campaign on, including standing up to Trump, building more affordable homes through acquiring federal funding, and protecting Canadian healthcare. Gerretsen commends Carney for breaking from precedent by choosing , rather than the US, as his first foreign visit after being sworn in as Prime Minister.
“We need somebody [as Prime Minister] who has the economic smarts to be able to deal with somebody like Trump, but also to be able to say it the way it is,” Gerretsen said.
“Our pharmacare plan currently has two drugs in it that are completely free for all Canadians, that being diabetes medication and contraceptives. I want to make sure that we don’t let Conservatives get elected because we know [about] their constant push towards privatization of the health care system,” Gerretsen said.
He identified affordability as a major concern for students, citing housing costs as a prime example of unaffordability.
“Too many young people are saying that they don’t expect to ever own a home, and that, I think, has to do with the affordability problem we have around housing,” Gerretsen said.
Gerretsen takes pride in his achievements during his time in office, highlighting major local successes like securing funding for infrastructure projects such as the Waaban Crossing bridge over the Cataraqui River, which opened in 2022, and ing the prison farm program, which provides inmates from Collins Bay Institution with employment opportunities at a local farm.
As a message to students who might be voting in their first federal election, Gerretsen gave some advice.
“We live in a world where information is consumed in such small sound bites—we need to make sure that we’re properly informed so that we’re making decisions on our own and getting involved and voting. Get the information, make a decision, and vote,” Gerretsen said.
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