BREAKING: Randy Hillier NOT Seeking Re-Election

Ontario's most outspoken independent MPP, who has criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates and controlling public health measures during the two year pandemic, has announced that he will not be seeking re-election in June's provincial election.

MPP Randy Hillier announced on Facebook he will leave provincial politics after 15 years at Queen's Park.

"I've got an important message for today; a message that will be greeted with sadness by some and that will be greeted with glee by others," Hillier said in the statement Thursday evening. "In fact, it will be much like what's happened to our society these days where we live in a very polarized society. People are either right or wrong, there's no in between, there is no room for discussion or nuance."

In April 2021, Hillier was charged under the Reopening Ontario Act for attending an illegal gathering at an establishment in Kemptville, Ont.

Recently, the MPP attended the "Freedom Convoy" demonstration in downtown Ottawa.

"In the last few years, especially since I came out opposing the narrative that we were living in the most dangerous times of COVID, that warranted the destruction of representative democracy, warranted states of emergencies and the suspension of civil liberties, the trampling of our Charter protested rights and freedoms, I've been offside with public opinion," Hillier said in the Facebook video.

"Many people in the public clamoured and encouraged our governments to take these excessive measures to allay their fears, to allay the anxiety. We have, in effect, been ruled by the mob for the last couple of years and I don't see that ending anytime soon."

"A view that the virus did not require us to trample our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, did not require us to close up our businesses, our schools, our health care, that these were all unnecessary and the facts and evidence have born this out," Hillier said.

"Every measure that we've taken has had limited or no effect, beneficial effect, on the spread of the virus."

"Our political system is broken, there is no sense spending any more time trying to fix a broken system from within, when the problem lies without," Hillier said during the Facebook video, noting other elected officials are "fearful" of speaking out against governments during the pandemic.

"I'll continue to be outspoken, and I'll continue to be a voice for freedom."