Jeff Burch

Jeff Burch is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election. He represents the electoral district of Niagara Centre as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party.

Prior to his election to the legislature Burch was the executive director of Niagara Folk Arts, a non–profit social services agency, and served as city councillor for Merritton Ward for St. Catharines City Council.

Background

Jeff Burch is a graduate from Brock University, with an honours BA in philosophy. Burch then spent three years as a graduate student and teaching assistant at Brock, teaching seminars in social issues and women's studies. He left his studies in 1996 after being elected president of a United Steelworkers local union.

Politics

Burch ran as the Ontario New Democratic Party's candidate in St. Catharines in 1995, losing to Liberal Jim Bradley.[citation needed] He was elected as a city councillor in St. Catharines, Ontario, in 2006. He served from 2006 to 2014, including four years as budget chair. He ran for mayor of St. Catharines in 2014, losing to Walter Sendzik by fewer than 2000 votes.

In February 2018, Burch won the NDP nomination in Niagara Centre. The riding has been an NDP stronghold for 44 years[citation needed] with Mel Swart, Peter Kormos and Cindy Forster holding the seat. On June 7, 2018, Burch won the seat. Burch currently serves as the Official Opposition critic for Municipal Affairs as well as the chair of the Official Opposition caucus.

Three months after his election in 2018, he scored a major victory by winning unanimous support for his motion to bring two-way all-day GO Transit rail service to Niagara.

Electoral record

vte2025 Ontario general election: Niagara Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Jeff Burch	20,408	42.29	+2.59	$92,494
	Progressive Conservative	Bill Steele	18,073	37.27	–0.36	$92,858
	Liberal	Damien O'Brien	7,143	14.74	+1.41	$5,551
	Green	Natashia Bergen	1,261	2.60	–1.93	$0
	New Blue	Jimmy Jackson	857	1.77	–0.97	$1,667
	Ontario Party	Darryl Weinberg	513	1.06	–0.97
	Ontario Alliance	Angela Browne	130	0.27	N/A
Total valid votes/expense limit	48,483	99.28	–0.25	$162,196
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots	353	0.72	+0.25
Turnout	48,836	49.59	+6.22
Eligible voters	98,486
	New Democratic hold	Swing	+1.48
Source: Elections Ontario

vte2022 Ontario general election: Niagara Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Jeff Burch	16,360	39.70	–4.53	$98,721
	Progressive Conservative	Fred Davies	15,506	37.63	+0.12	$60,037
	Liberal	Terry Flynn	5,492	13.33	+1.50	$12,584
	Green	Michelle McArthur	1,865	4.53	+0.84	$6
	New Blue	Gary Dumelie	1,148	2.79	N/A	$1,586
	Ontario Party	Vincent Gircys	837	2.03	N/A	$0
Total valid votes/expense limit	41,208	99.53	+0.90	$133,643
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots	194	0.47	–0.90
Turnout	41,402	43.37	–12.76
Eligible voters	95,459
	New Democratic hold	Swing	–2.32
Source(s)(PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. from the original on 2023-05-18.(PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. from the original on 2023-05-21.. Elections Ontario.

2018 Ontario general election: Niagara Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Jeff Burch	21,618	44.23	−3.65
	Progressive Conservative	April Jeffs	18,333	37.51	+10.87
	Liberal	Benoit Mercier	5,779	11.82	−8.60
	Green	Joe Dias	1,803	3.69	−0.34
	None of the Above	Joe Crawford	623	1.27
	Libertarian	Patrick Pietruszko	368	0.75	−0.27
	Independent	Steve Soos	217	0.44
	People's Political Party	Dario Smagata-Bryan	133	0.27
Total valid votes	48,874	98.63
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots	680	1.37
Turnout	49,554	56.13
Eligible voters	88,287
	New Democratic hold	Swing	-7.26
Source: Elections Ontario

2014 St. Catharines Mayoral Election

Mayoral Candidate	Vote	%
Walter Sendzik	13,147	40.19
Jeff Burch	11,321	34.61
Peter Secord	6,571	20.09
Mark Stevens	1,135	3.47
Jim Fannon	535	1.64

2010 St. Catharines City Council Election - Ward 1 - Merriton

Candidate	Total votes	% of total vote
Jennie Stevens (X)	2,294	32.96%
Jeff Burch (X)	2,064	29.66%
David Haywood	1,134	16.29%
Garry Robbins	817	11.74%
Sam Sacco	491	7.05%
Cameron Alderdice	160	2.30%
Total valid votes	6,960	100.00

2006 St. Catharines City Council Election - Ward 1 - Meritton

Candidate	Total votes	% of total vote
Jeff Burch	2857	33.01%
Jennie Stevens (X)	2849	32.92%
Sheila Morra (X)	2049	23.68%
Robbie Craine	899	10.39%
Total valid votes	6,960	100.00