After being the first one to throw his hat into the ring to become the Conservative candidate in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte, Coun. Sergio Morales has withdrawn from the race.
That left fellow city councillor Doug Shipley as the only one still standing. He will run for the Conservatives in the north-end riding for the upcoming federal election, which is set for Oct. 21.
Morales, who represents Ward 9 in the city's south end, withdrew from the race Friday evening before the candidate approval process concluded. His official announcement was made on social media one hour after the window had closed.
In his Facebook post Friday evening, Morales said he had worked hard in his push to win the Conservative nomination.
“With an outstanding 484 memberships signed up in such a short time, the people of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte responded and chose to believe in the vision I had to offer," he said. "That is absolutely beautiful and a humbling honour that I will never forget and will continue to use as a guiding force as I work to creative a positive change in our community.
"I will never compromise on that," Morales added. "It is disappointing that the party does not want a contested nomination election.”
In a phone interview Friday evening, BarrieToday asked Morales what he meant when he said the party didn’t want a contested nomination election, at which point he repeated his Facebook statement.
But, he added, “Let me be very clear, I support Doug Shipley.”
Shipley also made an announcement on Facebook on Friday.
"I am very pleased to announce that I have been selected as the candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada for Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte for the federal election this October," he said. "I am thankful for the support from my family and friends, and I look forward to the opportunity of representing this area at Parliament.
"There is a lot of hard work ahead and I look forward to assembling a great team to achieve our common goal," Shipley added.
Morales announced his intention to run for the Conservative candidacy on March 27 in hopes of replacing current MP Alex Nuttall, who said he would not seek re-election in the fall.
Since then, Logan Ross and Shipley, who represents Ward 3 on city council, also announced they were running to be the Conservative candidate.
With Ross having withdrawn her name on May 30, that left only the two city councillors.
Morales said he will continue to serve Ward 9, a position for which he was acclaimed in last fall's municipal election, without looking ahead to any future political aspirations at the provincial level.
“I can only control what I can control,” he said. “I do my job as a public servant knowing that I’m accountable to the voters and what voters decide and I respect their democratic ability to do so.”
