With the NDP’s longtime Algoma–Manitoulin–Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes stepping down after 17 years in office, Mississauga First Nation’s Laura Mayer is looking to take up the mantle in Hughes’ riding – or at least a part of it.
Under the newly revised Sault Ste. Marie–Algoma riding, the new NDP candidate is running to represent Sault Ste. Marie and a portion of Hughes’ soon-to-be-former riding in the upcoming federal election.
Although she leaves “big shoes to fill,” Mayer said she has worked with Hughes in the past, who even gave the new candidate a “nudge" to put her name in.
“She is just a powerhouse of knowledge and knowing every part of the riding,” Mayer told SooToday.
“I have been in conversations with her. She is helping me with my campaign.”
“It's big shoes to fill, but I really feel good about (it).”
A first time candidate, Mayer has previously worked behind the scenes with the NDP, both locally and beyond, and has also spent time involved with First Nations politics.
The Osgoode Hall Law School graduate has worked in advisory and management roles with First Nations, and currently serves as a councillor for Mississauga First Nation and as executive director of the National Council of Indigenous Midwives.
“My mother is Anishinaabe. She's from Mississauga First Nation, and my dad is from Blind River, and . . . he's white, and so I've always lived with one foot in each world, and it's made me a bridge builder, and I'm a really great policy person,” she said.
“I try to look at the whole big picture and understand . . . what are the pieces that we can advocate to change to make our lives better?”
Originally born in Sault Ste. Marie, Mayer grew up in Mississauga First Nation and Blind River, where she now resides with her family.
“In terms of politics and why I joined, I have a real interest in making life better for us in Sault Ste. Marie–Algoma,” she said.
“Having kids here, it makes you a little bit concerned about the future and making sure the decisions we're making in the next few years are ones that are going to protect the future for our kids.”
Although she lives outside of Sault Ste. Marie, where the majority of the riding lives, Mayer said she plans to be in the city and build “a lot of relationships” in the area – which she already began doing during Lisa Vezeau-Allen’s race in the recent provincial election.
At the same time, Mayer plans on bringing the riding’s rural issues to the fore.
“I think it's figuring out what our riding is going to be like moving forward, that we're going to be melding these two realities of living in the urban centre, but also in a rural place,” she said.
With Canada–U.S. relations souring amid the ongoing trade war, Mayer said the NDP is the right choice for Sault Ste. Marie–Algoma because it puts workers first.
“This election is becoming more and more about Trump's tariffs and American policy. The NDP has always been the one who stands up and ensures that workers are at the table, that unions are relevant to the conversation, and that these kinds of strategies need to have those representations at the table when we're talking about these big economic responses to tariffs,” she said.
A part of that means investing in workers, Mayer said.
“We're talking about things like federal procurement and trying to protect the steel industry,” she said.
"We need to be ready to recruit and train more workers . . . we're making sure that those interests are the ones that are being protected.”
The federal election is set to take place April 28.