Greater Sudbury candidates ready for long campaign

Greater Sudbury's federal election candidates have hit the ground running since Prime Minister Stephen Harper kicked off an early election campaign on Sunday, Aug. 2.

For candidates in the Sudbury riding, the 11-week campaign period – which makes it the longest in modern Canadian history – doesn't change too much, since they were already competing for the voters' favour due to a local byelection, to fill the seat former Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault left vacant in January 2015.

With a national election on the horizon, slated for Oct. 19, Sudbury joins the national fray.

Sudbury Liberal candidate Paul Lefebvre has not shied away from his criticism of Harper, and his decision to call the election early.

“It's not necessary at all,” Lefebvre said. “He could have called it six weeks before Oct. 19, but at the end of the day he decided to take advantage of the situation for himself.”

The opposition parties have argued an 11-week campaign gives the Conservatives an advantage because they have more money in their coffers than their competitors.

In a regular 37-day election period, each political party can spend up to $25 million. But for each additional day they can spend an extra $675,000. With a 78-day campaign, the party spending limit will surpass $50 million.

Individual candidates can get up to $2,700 a day from the parties to spend on their campaigns.

Despite any financial advantage for the Conservatives, Lefebvre said he would best represent Sudbury in Ottawa.

“I believe Liberals have the best plan,” he said. “Do you want to see an honest government with integrity that talks to Canadians? That's not what we've been having with Mr. Harper.”

His Nickel Belt colleague, Liberal candidate Marc Serré, has set his sights on the NDP instead, and incumbent Claude Gravelle.

In the 2011 general election, Gravelle dominated at the polls with nearly 55 per cent of the vote.

But Serré said he believes he can unseat Gravelle, and offers a better alternative for his constituents.

“They want someone approachable who will get results,” he said. “I'm passionate about the north and Nickel Belt.”

He said NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has not presented a strong economic platform, and has supported many of Harper's tax breaks.

The NDP was also dominant in the Sudbury riding in 2011, where Thibeault garnered almost 50 per cent of the vote.

While Thibeault alienated many NDP supporters when he switched to the provincial Liberals earlier in the year, current candidate Paul Loewenberg said supporters can be comfortable with his loyalty to the party and its ideals.

“People know my name, and they know I've been standing for the NDP for a long time,” he said. “Questions of loyalty don't come up to my face.”

Loewenberg said he hopes to challenge the cynicism around politics in Canada and Sudbury.

As for policies, he said the voters he has met so far have responded strongly to the NDP's $15 a day childcare plan and a push for less precarious work.

Conservative candidate Fred Slade was second to Thibeault in 2011 – with around 28 per cent of the vote – and said he is confident he can turn Sudbury blue with his second run at the federal seat.

“As far as the voters are concerned, they're giving me a warm reception at the door,” Slade said. “People would like to see things better, but considering what's happening on the global front they're quite pleased with the way things are going in Canada.”

As for the Green Party, both local candidates hope to bring attention to issues they say the other parties have ignored.

Nickel Belt Green Party candidate Stuart McCall, an organic farmer based in Garson, said he is interested in sustainable local food production and the positive impact it can have on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving the quality of what people eat.

Green Party Sudbury candidate David Robinson, a professor of economics at Laurentian University, said no other party has a strong policy on climate change.

“We're coming up against just an appalling shame for Canada, and that is that Canada has actually been blocking action on climate change for the last eight years,” he said.

Robinson added he is the only candidate to offer strong policy ideas to improve the local economy.

He said, for example, that the federal government should help the forestry sector expand into the growing market for cross-laminated timber products – used in a lot of new construction projects, including Laurentian University's School of Architecture.

“The feds could be pushing an industry across here that would use our timber efficiently, add real value to it and break into the market in Asia,” he said.

Tension between candidates should only heat up as voting day draws ever closer, and they battle to win the favour of local voters.