March gearing up to be month of nominations

On March 21, members of the Liberal party in the proposed Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding will vote to nominate the man to represent the party in the next federal election.
But local party members will have to travel to Thunder Bay to cast their vote.
“The Ontario Liberal Party of Canada have not allowed any polling stations [outside of Thunder Bay,]” said riding association president Philomena Pauluk.
Former Thunder Bay mayor Ken Boshcoff and businessman Don Paterson are vying for the Liberal nomination.
Meanwhile, the local riding association for the Conservative party has already announced it will have one polling station in Fort Frances on March 26 and a second in Thunder Bay on March 27.
While no candidates have officially filed their nomination papers, riding association president Richard Neumann is confident there will be a contested nomination.
“We’ll have one for sure, and there are two more who are very interested,” he said.
He said the riding association requested they be designated as a remote riding by party headquarters.
“If we had not done that, we would have been forced to hold a single nomination meeting in Thunder Bay,” he explained.
This designation will also mean Conservative party members in the Rainy River District will be able to vote for the leader of the federal party by mail, without having to travel to Thunder Bay.
“We are making every effort we can to ensure that this riding redistribution impacts as little as possible on the type of representation people in the Rainy River District are getting,” Neumann noted.
The NDP has yet to set a nomination date for the riding, but are hoping to also run two meetings, to make it more convenient for party members in the Rainy River District to participate.
Former Fort Frances councillor Larry Richardson has said he will run for the nomination.
NDP riding association president Owen Lindsay said there will likely be a second candidate, but that he could not reveal a name at this point.
A date for the nomination meeting will be set once the candidates have made their plans official, Lindsay added.