Summary: This will be a riding to watch in 2015, with three heavy hitters squaring off. The Liberal and NDP candidates have come out of political retirement to take on Conservative MP and Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford. Running for the Liberals is Bob Nault, a former cabinet minister in the Jean Chrétien government who represented this area from 1988 to his retirement in 2004. For the NDP, it’s former Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton, who sat in Ontario’s Provincial Parliament from 1987 to his retirement in 2011.
Boundaries: This riding covers a large area of northwestern Ontario. Its boundaries have not changed from the 2011 election.
Last Election: Conservative Rickford won with 47.0 per cent of the vote, followed by NDP candidate Tania Cameron with 27.9 per cent.
History: Rickford was first elected here in 2008. His defeat of the Liberal incumbent, MP Roger Valley, ended 20 years of a Liberal hold on this area.
Demographics: 34.9 per cent of residents in Kenora identify as Aboriginal, according to the 2011 National Household Survey—the highest figure by far in Ontario.
Candidates
Conservative: Greg Rickford, MP, Minister of Natural Resources
NDP: Howard Hampton, lawyer, former Ontario NDP Leader
Liberal: Bob Nault, consultant, former MP
Green: Ember McKillop, elementary school teacher
Independent: Kelvin Boucher-Chicago
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