HURON-BRUCE – Bayfield resident Laurie Hazzard, a former nurse, educator, and school administrator has been named a candidate for the Huron-Bruce New Democratic Party (NDP) nomination for the 2022 provincial election.
“[She] has undergone an intensive vetting process and has been accepted as a candidate for nomination by the New Democratic Party for the next provincial election,” the Huron-Bruce NDP said in a July 12 press release.
Hazzard was born in Wallaceburg, Ontario and graduated as a registered nurse in 1979. She spent two years at Weeneebayko General Hospital in Moose Factory, one year at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, and 10 years at the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario (CHWO).
While working at CHWO, Hazzard obtained her honours bachelor of arts, masters in history, and bachelor of education.
She went on to teach at Seaforth District High School and eventually because vice-principal. In 1999, she was assigned to Distance Education and with a team of educators and IT professionals, created the first full-service, publicly-funded online secondary school in Ontario – the Avon Maitland Distance Education Centre (AMDEC). While principal of AMDEC, Hazzard was approached by the Ontario Ministry of Education in 2004 and invited to join a team tasked with establishing an eLearning strategy for the province.
Over the next 14 years, as an Education Officer with the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Branch, Hazzard oversaw the development of K-12 digital resources for use in Ontario’s publicly-funded schools. She retired from the Ministry in 2019.
With extensive experience in health care and education, the NDP says Hazzard has a unique insight into the needs and challenges faced by all Ontarians—particularly in rural Ontario.
Since retiring, Hazzard has been an active community member in Bayfield, volunteering with the Home4Good Shopping Buddies program, sings with the Glee Sisters (a Bayfield women’s choir), and is an enthusiastic member of the Bayfield Ukulele Society.
This past winter, Hazzard ran a ZOOM ukulele program for the Huron County Alzheimer’s Society.
In keeping with her passion about and commitment to environmental issues, Hazzard also worked with Blue Bayfield to digitize their book The Great Lakes: A Time of Reckoning. Hazzard collaborated with Ontario teachers to create lesson plans for Grade 9 science and geography based on this booklet, which is now online and available worldwide.
The Huron-Bruce NDP provincial nomination meeting will take place in September.
More information may be found at https://hub.ontariondp.ca/ or lauriehazzard1@gmail.com.
