Several days into the campaign trail, some candidates are reporting confusion among constituents as to which riding they’re now expected to vote in.
Things shifted since the previous federal election in 2021, with Sudbury reconfigured to the east and the Nickel Belt riding replaced by the new, larger riding of Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt.
Some people who voted for a Sudbury candidate last time around will now be expected to vote in Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt, while some former Nickel Belt residents will now vote in Sudbury.
Some former residents of Algoma Manitoulin-Kapuskasing have also found themselves in Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt.
“There’s a lot of confusion among people as to which riding they belong to,” Sudbury Liberal incumbent Viviane Lapointe told Sudbury.com, adding that her constituency and campaign offices have both received a flurry of phone calls from people seeking clarification.
Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt Liberal candidate Marc Serré (formerly Nickle Belt MP) also said he has faced a great deal of confusion from people as to which riding they are in.
“I really feel Elections Canada could do a better job,” he said. “When a riding is amalgamated like this, there needs to be more education out there.”
The Federal Electoral Districts created a map, available by clicking here, which people can use to toggle between 2021 ridings and the final ridings which take effect with this year’s election.
A detailed map of Sudbury is also available by clicking here, and a Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt map is available by clicking here.
People can also plug their postal code into the Elections Canada website, available by clicking here, to determine which federal riding they are in.
In Sudbury, the riding changes find the riding contained exclusively within the City of Greater Sudbury (though not the entire municipality), whereas it previously stretched farther west to just east of Nairn Centre. The riding now includes Skead, Falconbridge, Coniston, Wahnapitae and Wanup, which were previously part of Nickel Belt.
The Sudbury riding also now includes all of the city of Sudbury, whereas Nickel Belt previously had the South End from The Four Corners south.
Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt is the same as the former Nickel Belt, minus what was lost to Sudbury, plus a swath of what was previously part of Algoma–Manitoulin–Kapuskasing, stretching the riding east to include Espanola, Massey and Manitoulin Island.
Sudbury.com reached out to all five federal candidates in Sudbury and Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt who also sought election in the 2021 race for their insights regarding the riding changes and what it means for their campaigns.
These candidates include Serré and NDP candidate Andréane Chénier in Sudbury East–Manitoulin–Nickel Belt, and Lapointe, Conservative candidate Ian Symington and NDP candidate Nadia Verrelli in Sudbury.
All candidates responded by phone except for Symington, who responded with a brief written statement. A campaign representative said he was too busy to grant a media interview on Tuesday because he is still working as a medical doctor two days per week until the April 28 federal election date gets a bit closer.
“I have now 10 new mayors of municipalities and seven new First Nations in addition to the three I already had, so this is all about building relationships,” Serré said.
An expansive riding, he said it’ll take adding more kilometres to his 2018 Chevrolet Silverado, which already has 353,000 kilometres on its odometer.
Chénier said travelling the expanded riding is helping her better appreciate “how much the north is both appreciated and ignored.”
“They love us for our natural resources, they really want to do economic development up here because it’s got a lot of money in the area, but when it comes time to provide services … redistribution is a really great example of how little they think about us.”
The already-expansive riding was made even larger by the distribution, she said, putting more people farther away from an MP’s office.
This is a point Serré has also been sharing. In 2022, he joined Lapointe as part of a group of 10 Northern Ontario MPs in pushing back against the latest round of riding changes, which also saw the region lose a seat, bringing it down to nine.
Serré said that he’d continue to push back against further reductions in the next electoral boundary review, expected to take place within the next 10 years, which Lapointe also said she’d participate in to ensure more variables than just population are considered.
Despite the boundary change, Verrelli said the basics of campaigning remain the same.
“It’s different, but in a really good way because we’re reaching out to more people, talking to them and asking them what issues they’re facing today,” she said.
The boundary change might also bring about different results in the coming election, with Serré noting that recently retired NDP MP Carol Hughes served Algoma–Manitoulin–Kapuskasing since 2008, handily securing most of these elections, particularly on Manitoulin Island and Espanola. Serré is also losing Liberal supporters in the Garson and Coniston area.
“I worked hard for three elections in that area and won pretty much all of the polls there,” he said. “And the Conservatives are really well funded (political newcomer Jim Bélanger’s campaign), so they’re having a strong campaign.
“Right now, the mood I’m hearing is more the Liberals and the Conservatives, and that’s what we’ve got to keep pushing. It’s a two-way race in the riding.”
Cuts proposed under Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats are motivating people, he said.
Although the boundary change gives Chénier a leg up as an NDP candidate compared to the 2021 election cycle, she said, “Really, the only number that matters is the ballot box.”
Lapointe shared a similar sentiment in dismissing polling, while Verrelli said that although the boundary change offers her campaign a net gain in votes according to 2021 election results, “it doesn't mean we’re not going to do the work that we need to do. I’m still hitting the pavement, knocking on doors and talking with people.”
In his written statement, Symington said that losing a Northern Ontario seat was a disappointing outcome in the federal riding redistribution. His team has been knocking on doors throughout the new Sudbury riding for the past year.
“We've had signs flying out of our office for all the new areas,” he said. “The uptake in Garson, in particular, has been amazing. We had one person come in and install more than a hundred signs. Long Lake, Algonquin and Coniston have also been very positive in showing support for us during our door-knocking campaign.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
