Although the full slate of candidates for the Sept. 20 federal election has yet to be established through Elections Canada, several local candidates have already been lined up.
Various political parties have been busy in the Sudbury and Nickel Belt ridings by nominating candidates in advance of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election call, which took place on Sunday.
The nomination process for candidates closes on Aug. 30, and a complete list of candidates for the Sept. 20 election is expected to be available through Elections Canada on Sept. 1.
As it stands, the following is a rundown of which candidates we know are running in Sudbury and Nickel Belt as of now.
Sudbury
In March, incumbent Sudbury Liberal MP Paul Lefebvre announced he would not seek re-election.
First elected in 2015, Lefebvre said he’d valued his time in Ottawa working for Sudburians, “but the time away from my family these past six years has been difficult, and it’s time someone else earned the chance to serve this great riding.”
In the 2019 federal election, Lefebvre earned 40.9 per cent of the vote, followed by NDP candidate Beth Mairs’ 28.9 per cent and Conservative candidate Pierre St-Amant’s 20.6 per cent.
In July, Viviane Lapointe won the Liberal nomination for Sudbury. Lapointe is the current executive director of Community Living Greater Sudbury, and has held various senior bureaucratic posts in government and senior posts in the public sector.
The New Democrats selected Nadia Verrelli as Sudbury’s candidate in June.
Verrelli is a professor of Canadian politics, a constitutional scholar and researcher with the Queens University Institute for Intergovernmental Relations, and a former Laurentian University professor (political science was one of the programs axed by Laurentian in the spring).
Conservatives in Sudbury nominated Dr. Ian Symington as their candidate in July. Symington is a married father of three children who grew up in Copper Cliff. A family physician for 20 years, Symington sees patients at the Copper Cliff Medical Centre as well as at Health Sciences North.
The People’s Party of Canada lists Colette Methé as their candidate for Sudbury, but does not offer any additional information.
Nickel Belt
In Nickel Belt, incumbent Liberal MP Marc Serré is seeking re-election.
He led with 39 per cent of the vote in 2019, followed by NDP candidate Stef Paquette’s 32.1 per cent and Conservative candidate Aino Laamanen’s 21.2 per cent.
Serré first earned the riding’s Liberal nomination in 2015, at which time his past political experience included serving as a trustee with the Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario and a municipal councillor in Sturgeon Falls.
He was a general sales manager with Eastlink and has a bachelor of commerce from Laurentian University.
Serré currently serves as chair of the Canadian section of ParlAmericas, an independent network composed of national legislatures of 35 national legislatures from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The Conservatives have nominated Charles Humphrey, who, according to his campaign page, “works as an advanced care paramedic and a research assistant in pre-hospital medicine, with prior experience in post-secondary education and public policy research.”
The New Democrats have Andréane Chénier as their candidate, who was acclaimed to the position in July. She was described as an occupational health and safety specialist with CUPE and a mother of two who lives in Hanmer.
The Green party has nominated Craig Gravelle as their candidate. The party’s official website notes he was raised in various communities around Greater Sudbury and Mississauga, has a diploma and certificate from Humber College in Toronto and has been cooking in restaurants for five years, including three in Greater Sudbury.