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Timmins PCs name candidate for provincial election

Genier acclaimed at nomination meeting
2018-04-27 Yvan Genier Timmins PC MH
Yvan Genier has been acclaimed as the candidate for the new Timmins riding in the June 7 provincial election. Maija Hoggett/TimminsToday

The Progressive Conservatives have selected its Timmins candidate for the upcoming provincial election.

Yvan Genier was acclaimed as the candidate at the Timmins PC riding association’s meeting tonight.

A financial advisor for the Knights of Columbus, he has worn a number of hats through the years. Those include funeral director, teacher, volunteer firefighter with the Mountjoy station, and a Canadian Armed Forces military reservist at Algonquin Regiment as logistics officer.

“I think I can relate to many, many citizens in many jobs,” he said.

While politics has crossed his mind in the past, the path there wasn’t revealed until this year.

Earlier this year, Genier’s dad died.

“I wasn’t very happy, I had just lost my father, my mom called me down and she says ‘do what your dad would have wanted you to do, get busy, change things’ and is if it was planned, which it wasn’t, everything fell into place after that,” he said.

“I intend to make a difference to the best of my abilities to help people out here, to make sure that everybody who has to suffer through what my dad did has a much better outcome.”

When Ontarians head to the polls June 7, it will be the first time local residents elect an MPP for the new riding of Timmins.

The boundaries for the current riding of Timmins-James Bay were redefined and split into two last year. With Timmins on its own, the second new riding of Mushkegowuk-James Bay includes communities along Highway 11 from Smooth Rock Falls to Hearst and extends north to Peawanuck.

Genier is the second known candidate.

Veteran politician Gilles Bisson announced he would be running in Timmins earlier this year.