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Niagara Catholic District School Board
Thorold / Merritton (St. Catharines Ward 1)
Number to Elect: 1

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Gave perfect answers to CLC's 2026 trustee candidate survey. Mathew is a faithful and devout Catholic.

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On June 20, 2023, Trustee Burkholder voted against a common sense Motion that would have banned the use of partisan and special-interest flags, banners, and other paraparaphernalia from being displayed by the NCDSB. The Motion was put forward at the very time that the notorious homosexual / transgender Pride Flag was flying in the Board, and its passage would have ended the scandalous domination of Pride over the NCDSB. Nevertheless, six out of the eight Board trustees voted against the Motion, thus permitting the sin-laden Pride Flag to continue holding sway over the Board.

In May 2021, Trustee Burkholder betrayed the duties of a Catholic trustee to uphold the Faith when she voted in favour of an outlandish, anti-Catholic motion to fly the homosexual Pride flag at the Catholic Education Centre and all Catholic secondary schools in the Niagara board (see Votes tab).

Re-elected in 2018 Ontario municipal elections. Did not respond to CLC's questionnaire in previous election cycles.
incumbent
Matthew Simatovic Rhianon Burkholder
CLC Rating Pro-life, pro-parental rightsPro-lgbt ideology
RATING COMMENTS: Gave perfect answers to CLC's 2026 trustee candidate surv...

<More>		 On June 20, 2023, Trustee Burkholder voted against a comm...

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1. Will you work to ensure that your Board publicly promotes total fidelity to the faith and moral teachings of the Catholic Church? (Current examples include the illicitness of abortion, contraception and homosexual practice) YesNo (see vote record)
2. Will you work to ensure that Catholic schools do not invite guest speakers who have publicly expressed positions that contradict the morality and teaching of the Church, no matter how great their achievements in politics, business, sports, science or the arts? Yes--
3. Will you work to ensure that educational materials that enter the premises of Catholic schools (e.g., library resources, curriculum texts, awareness campaigns, flyers) and all approved school activities are consistent with and do not undermine the morality and teachings of the Church? Yes--
4. Will you oppose sex-ed programs which are contrary to Church teaching? Yesno response
5. Given that the Gay Pride flag is a controversial political symbol which contradicts Church teaching on marriage & human sexuality, will you oppose any and all proposals to fly the Gay Pride flag at Catholic schools, at the board office, or to acknowledge and celebrate June as “Pride month”? YesNo (see vote record)
6. Will you work to ensure that your Catholic school board enacts a policy requiring all agents and employees of the board to uphold the rights of custodial parents to direct and control the education of, and any medical treatment provided to, their dependent children attending its schools? Yesno response
7. Are there any circumstances under which you believe a woman should have access to abortion*? (*Note: a surgical or medical intervention designed to prevent the death of the mother but which results in the unintended and undesired death of the pre-born child, is not an abortion) No--
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