Goldie Ghamari, the MPP for the Ottawa riding of Carleton, has announced she will not be running in the 2025 provincial election. Ghamari was first elected as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2018 provincial election with 51 per cent of the vote and was re-elected in 2022 with 48 per cent of the vote. Last June, Premier Doug Ford removed her from the PC caucus due to “repeated instances of serious lapses in judgment and a failure to collaborate constructively with caucus leadership and as a team member.” Her ouster from caucus came after the National Council of Canadian Muslims called for her removal when she posted a photo of a meeting with British far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a.k.a. Tommy Robinson. Yaxley-Lennon is the founder of the anti-Islam English Defence League and has a criminal record in the U.K. Ghamari claimed she was not aware of his history prior to meeting with him. She remained as an independent MPP until the dissolution of the legislature this week. On Friday, two days after an election was called in Ontario, Ghamari posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, that she was leaving provincial politics. “After 10 years involved in provincial politics, 7 of them as a Member of Provincial Parliament, it’s time for me to close this chapter of my political career and move on to the next chapter,” she wrote. “Please rest assured this is not a ‘goodbye.’ It’s just ‘see you later.’” The riding of Carleton includes Stittsville, North Gower, Munster, Kars, Osgoode, Metcalfe, Manotick, Riverside South, Findlay Creek, Richmond and Greely. The riding’s current boundaries were established in 2018. Ottawa city councillor George Darouze is running for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the riding. The Liberal Party of Ontario has nominated Brandon Bay, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Ottawa in 2022. The NDP and Green parties had yet to announce their candidates for the riding as of Friday afternoon.
