THUNDER BAY – It was tragedy that convinced Ron Chookomolin to run for the city’s highest elected office.
In June 2017 his 25-year-old son Marlan died under suspicious circumstances, his body found beaten and left on a pathway in the County Fair area.
His death remains a mystery.
It wasn’t long before Chookomolin announced his intention to run for mayor, saying Thunder Bay needs a strong mayor to find actual solutions to the problems the city is facing, not more politicians big on talk and short on actions.
Not surprisingly, he wants to tackle crime, starting at its root cause, drug addiction, advocating for the municipality to work with the health system to find ways to stop addiction in its tracks. Once that happens, crime rates will go down, he said.
But until that happens, it’s going to get worse.
“That’s the root of all crime. You have now firearms coming into the city. You have gangs coming into the city. The deputy chief has now asking for assistance and she’s on the right track,” Chookomolin said, adding it’s a little too late, in his opinion.
“It’s alarming and we need to crack down on this rivalry of gangs coming into the city. If elected I want to work with the justice department on how we can develop an agency or resource programming to combat crime, whether it’s a special unit to complement Thunder Bay Police. It could be the OPP or partnerships with the RCMP to narrow this gap of violence, guns and prostitution.”
An advocate and mediator in his private life, the 50-year-old is making his first run at public office and said having an Indigenous mayor would send a strong message to a divided community and give hope to the city’s youth.
“I’ll be honest with you. Reaching the young voters is the most challenging part of this campaign ... It’s their future that’s going to be really depending on this election,” Chookomolin, concerned that Thunder Bay, as it stands, isn’t positioned to provide future success to its younger generations.
“We need to be out there focusing on our youth, asking what changes they want, the direction for the future of Thunder Bay,” said the father-of-two. “We need to hear their input and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
