A former leader of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is set to run for the NDP in the riding of Brantford—Brant during the next provincial election.
Harvey Bischof was introduced as a candidate by Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath at a press conference at North Park Collegiate in Brantford on Tuesday.
The past OSSTF union boss said he had the idea of running for office “tucked in the back” of his mind for “a long time.”
“I would like to be a part of a government that understands the investment value of education but also understands that public services are in the long term interest of Ontario and Ontarians,” Bischof said at the media event Tuesday.
An English teacher from Durham, Bischof is originally from Pickering, Ont., where he attended elementary and high school, according to the OSSTF.
He has degrees from Trent and Queen’s Universities.
Bischof was elected as a vice-president of the OSSTF in 2011 before becoming president of the union in 2017.
Healthcare, long-term care, the opiod crisis and housing affordability are other issues besides education that Bischof said were high on his priority list of things to tackle should he be elected.
“Public services like health care, things that should be public services like long-term care, all of these things were motivating for to make me decide to step forward,” Bishof said.
Brantford—Brant is currently represented by Will Bouma, a Progressive Conservative, elected in 2018.
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