THUNDER BAY – The federal election is now underway and local candidates are revving up their engines for another campaign. Here are the local candidates for the Thunder Bay–Rainy River riding:
The incumbent Liberal Party’s candidate is Marcus Powlowski, a physician born in Fort William.
“Are we prepared to go? Absolutely. I can’t say I was looking forward to an election, but now it's on, let’s go,” he said.
“Why re-elect me? I think I’m a pretty good MP, I certainly work hard, I certainly, I think, do represent the interests of the people of Thunder Bay. I’m not a yes man. For the vast majority of things, I agree with the party, but if there are things I disagree with them on, I will tell them that.”
The Conservative Party of Canada's candidate is Adelina Pecchia, an ordained member of the clergy who was born in Italy and raised in Westfort.
“The goals are to implement the recovery plan that our leader Erin O’Toole has set out to do, which is the jobs, accountability, mental health, our country, and the economy, so I’m there to help implement it,” Pecchia said.
“The Conservative Party is ready, it’s the same in the sense that we’re dedicated, we’re a dedicated people, we’re a dedicated leader, we have dedicated leadership, so we are always dedicated to serving Canadians.”
The NDP’s candidate is Yuk-Sem Won, an educator and labour activist born and raised in Hearst.
“It’s very clear that the NDP is the choice for the North, and that we are going to take back the riding and make sure that our voices are heard, especially in the recovery of this pandemic,” Won said.
“Right in the midst of this fourth wave, it’s one of those things where you sit there and you say, ‘where are the priorities’, and the priorities shouldn’t be power, it has to be the people, it has to be the economic recovery of our communities, of our businesses – it has to be the safety of the people.”
The Green Party’s candidate is Tracy Mackinnon, a poverty advocate from Fort William.
“My goals are just to bring awareness to some issues that I think need to be brought to light more now, because of Covid,” Mackinnon said.
“The first and foremost is all the residential school children that have been found and will be found, and continue to be found, and all those that won’t be found, that’s hugely important. Then of course the climate, the way Canada is on fire lately, with all the forest fires.”
The Peoples Party of Canada candidate is Alan Aubut, a geologist born and raised in Northwestern Ontario.
"One of the skills I seem to be a bit better at than a lot of others is seeing the bigger picture relative to the smaller picture," Aubut said.
"And that's really why I got into what I'm doing right now, is that, I don't like what I've been seeing for close to 20 years now and things just seem to be getting worse, and a lot of people just don't understand that we are on the edge of the abyss. If we don't have a change of government now, we're toast."
The election is scheduled to send voters to the polls on Sept. 20.
