King—Vaughan

King—Vaughan is a suburban and semi-rural riding north of Toronto that encompasses the Township of King and the northern portions of the City of Vaughan, including the communities of Woodbridge, Kleinburg, and King City. The riding has a large Italian-Canadian population and has been a Conservative stronghold at the provincial level for decades. Progressive Conservative Stephen Lecce won the seat in 2018 and served as Ontario’s Minister of Education from 2019 until a cabinet shuffle in June 2024 moved him to the portfolio of Minister of Energy and Electrification. Lecce’s five years as education minister placed him at the centre of some of the term’s most contentious policy battles.

Among the most significant episodes was the passage and rapid reversal of Bill 28, the Keeping Students in Class Act, in November 2022. The legislation imposed a contract on education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and made it illegal for them to strike, provoking a walkout by 55,000 education workers. Premier Ford reversed the bill within days, and a tentative agreement with CUPE was reached later that month. Lecce remained in the education portfolio through continued negotiations with teachers’ unions and debates over curriculum changes before being shuffled to energy in 2024.

Candidates

Stephen Lecce (Progressive Conservative) — A graduate of the University of Western Ontario in political science, Lecce previously worked as director of media relations in the Prime Minister’s Office under Stephen Harper. First elected in 2018, he served as Minister of Education from 2019 to 2024, becoming one of the province’s longest-serving holders of that portfolio, before moving to Minister of Energy and Electrification in June 2024.

Gillian Vivona (Liberal) — A retired high school teacher with a career spanning more than two decades in education, Vivona had lived in Vaughan since 2000 and previously served as elected president of an association representing 2,500 teachers. She was also the Liberal candidate in the riding in 2022.

Rick Morelli (NDP) — Morelli began his political career in 1988 when he was elected as a school trustee in the former City of North York at age twenty-two. He later ran federally for the NDP in Thornhill in 2004 and provincially in Vaughan in 2007.

Ann Raney ran for the Green Party, Christopher Bressi for the New Blue Party, and Maria Morgis for the Ontario Party.

Local Issues

The proposed Highway 413 was a defining issue for King—Vaughan. The planned fifty-two-kilometre highway connecting the Highway 401/407 interchange in the west to Highway 400 near the riding would pass through or near the area, crossing farmland and portions of the Greenbelt. In October 2024, the province tabled Bill 212, which exempted Highway 413 from the Environmental Assessment Act and accelerated property acquisitions. Environmental groups and several local municipalities, including King Township and Vaughan, had expressed opposition, citing the loss of farmland, disruption of wetlands and waterways, and the project’s estimated cost.

Growth and development continued to reshape the riding during the term. Residential subdivision construction in both Vaughan and King Township raised familiar suburban questions about the adequacy of schools, transit, and community services for a growing population. The widening of Highway 400 through the area involved overpass and bridge reconstruction. Residents debated whether infrastructure investment was keeping pace with the rapid expansion of new neighbourhoods.

Education policy carried particular resonance in the riding given that the local MPP had served as Minister of Education. Parents experienced firsthand the disruptions of the November 2022 education workers’ walkout, and debates over curriculum, class sizes, and the lingering effects of pandemic-era learning loss remained active topics. Lecce’s move to the energy portfolio in 2024 shifted some attention toward Ontario’s electricity supply and infrastructure, but education continued to shape how voters in King—Vaughan assessed their representative’s record.