Bobbi Ann Brady was re-elected in the Haldimand Norfolk riding for her second provincial term as an Independent.
By Doug Goodhue
Advocate Correspondent
Bobbi Ann Brady has been re-elected as an Independent Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Haldimand Norfolk.
On election night, Feb. 27, Brady was asked what was most important in her Haldimand-Norfolk campaign, and she said it was her message to all voters, “Honesty and integrity always matter.”
When votes were tabulated, Brady had almost two thirds of all ballots from the 2025 Haldimand-Norfolk riding - 33,669 votes in total. Amy Martin, the PC candidate, had 12,949; Vandan Patel, Liberal, 2,918; Erica Englert, NDP, 2,147; Anna Massinen, Green, 821; and Garry Tanchuk, New Blue, 392.
Brady carried the votes at 36 HN ballot boxes, which along with advance polls, gave her 63.65 per cent of the valid votes, and one of the highest margins of victory in the province.
The Progressive Conservatives won a third consecutive majority government – the first time in more than 50 years – taking 80 of 124 ridings.
Brady said she and her team were confident from Day 1 of the 2025 campaign, and right out of the gate people were coming forward to support her.
“I said to my campaign team, this is the first campaign that I’ve ever seen – and I’ve run a lot of campaigns – where people were very, very adamant that I knew how they voted, or how they were going to vote. They were very, very strong in their convictions.”
In her opinion, it wasn’t “if” re-elected, it was “when” she was going back to Queen’s Park for a second term.
“I purposely used that verbiage at the (Simcoe) debate. You’ve got to believe that you can win, that you are going to be the winner.”
Brady said she relied on her experience in the provincial arena.
“Knowing how to build a team, knowing how to surround yourself with good people comes from 25 years of me working at the provincial level. And I’m sorry, a few years at the municipal level does not compare to 25 years in the provincial arena.”
Brady said that she had the help of an excellent staff to deliver her campaign, and shared her thanks at 316 Queensway West, Simcoe, after the election.
“Tonight’s speech was really about the team that came together. My team has significantly grown since 2022 with different people, people who have never been involved politically and lots who have been, but my goodness so many newcomers. And people from different stripes, all parties.
“So my focus tonight was how we can all come together in that spirit of collaboration. We can all have different ideas, but we can kind of meet in the middle and get the job done. And, of course, I just wanted to thank everyone. People who went out there in -15 degree weather, and drilled signs into the ground. People who went door knocking, and walked like penguins on ice to knock on doors.
“It’s the most amazing thing to me that these people would actually do that. But they believe so much in me defending democracy, standing up for what we believe in, protecting our rural way of life, that they did those things in -15 degree weather. And to me, that’s just tremendous.”
As an Independent MPP, Brady successfully persuaded her constituents that an Independent does not require a role within a political party.
“In 2022, I really battled that whole ‘we don’t really understand an Independent… we don’t understand what an Independent can do.’ It took so much time to explain it,” said Brady. “The difference this time around, they had seen for two-and-a-half years what an Independent could do, and they told me they liked that. They liked the fact that I could go to Queen’s Park without being under someone’s thumb, without Premier Ford telling me what to do or say.”
Brady stressed ‘honesty and integrity’ would continue in Haldimand Norfolk.
Many of her campaign events were ‘grassroots,’ she said, including meetings in barns with 50-60 farmers.
“Last night we were at a little café getting together, and that’s what politics looked like when I started in 1999. It wasn’t tightly controlled photo ops where they have the big PC backdrop – that’s not what grassroots politics looks like. THIS is what grassroots politics looks like,” she said, looking around the room.
Former MPP Toby Barrett, who had stepped down in the spring of 2022 after serving the local area for 27 years as a PC, called it a ‘grassroots party of 110,000.’
“That party showed itself strong tonight,” Brady nodded. “If only other Independents would try it. If only we had 15 Independents sitting in the Ontario Legislature. It would be incredible.”
- with files from Chris Abbott
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