Niagara Centre

Niagara Centre occupies the industrial heartland of the Niagara Peninsula, encompassing the cities of Welland, Thorold, and Port Colborne along with a portion of southern St. Catharines. The Welland Canal — the shipping corridor linking Lake Ontario to Lake Erie — runs through the riding and has shaped its economy and physical character since the canal's original construction in the 1820s.

Candidates

Vance Badawey (Liberal) — Born and raised in Port Colborne, Badawey entered municipal politics in 1994 and served as mayor of Port Colborne from 1997 to 2003 before returning for a second term from 2006 to 2014. He simultaneously sat on the Regional Municipality of Niagara council and the Police Services Board. He was first elected to Parliament in 2015 and served on the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

April Jeffs (Conservative) — A Niagara College graduate who founded a wedding photography business she operated for two decades, Jeffs served as mayor of the Township of Wainfleet and Niagara Regional Councillor from 2010 to 2018. On Regional Council she co-chaired the Public Health and Social Services Committee and served as vice-chair of the Budget Committee. She had previously run as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2018 Ontario provincial election.

Malcolm Allen (NDP) — Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Allen immigrated to Canada as a child in 1963 and eventually settled in the Niagara region. He earned a degree in history and political science from Brock University in 1983 and worked as an electrician, spending roughly thirty years at General Motors in St. Catharines. He served on the Executive Board of CAW Local 199 and won a seat on Pelham Town Council before being elected to Parliament in 2008. He served as the NDP's agriculture and agri-food critic until losing his seat to Badawey in 2015.

Michael Tomaino (Green Party) — A pharmacist who grew up in Port Colborne and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1991, Tomaino returned to the Niagara region to raise a family. He served on the board of directors of the Hope Centre, including as past president, and was active with STEP (Strategy to End Poverty) Niagara. He focused his practice on compassionate delivery of addiction treatment services.

Andrew Sainz-Nieto ran for the People's Party, Nic Bylsma represented the Christian Heritage Party, and Robert Walker stood for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

About the Riding

Welland, the riding's largest city, grew up around the heavy industries that depended on the canal — steel fabrication, chemical manufacturing, and pulp and paper — though many of those legacy operations have scaled back in recent decades. The city has worked to diversify, attracting distribution centres, food-processing operations, and advanced manufacturing firms along the Highway 406 corridor. Welland's central position in the Niagara Region, within a day's trucking distance of several major American industrial states, has bolstered its appeal as a logistics hub. Thorold, perched atop the Niagara Escarpment, is home to a section of the canal's locks where ships are raised to navigate the escarpment. Brock University, situated on the escarpment above Thorold, anchors the educational and research economy and contributes a substantial student population. Port Colborne, at the canal's Lake Erie entrance, balances its marine industrial heritage — anchored by a nickel refinery that has operated since 1918 — with a growing tourism sector centred on its waterfront and Nickel Beach. In 2019, manufacturing employment, healthcare access, housing affordability, and the future of the Welland Canal as a trade corridor were central concerns across the riding's working-class communities.