Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles arrived in Sault Ste. Marie on a very blustery Thursday for a campaign stop in support of local candidate Lisa Vezeau-Allen.
A crowd of about 80 people braved snow squalls to get up close and personal with Stiles, who is running for Ontario's top job for the first time.
"Lisa Vezeau-Allen is a champion for this community. She is a fighter for this community. And I am going to be so proud to welcome her at Queen's Park in a few weeks," Stiles said, to cheers from the crowd at Mane Street Cafe and Lounge.
In an interview immediately after the event, Stiles told SooToday she believes the NDP can win in the Sault.
"Absolutely, we are in it to win here. We think we can flip this riding from blue to orange, and we have an incredible candidate," she said of Vezeau-Allen.
Stiles is the first party leader to appear in the Sault during the provincial election, which began on Jan. 28.
Speaking to the crowd of supporters, Stiles questioned the timing of the Feb. 27 election, which was called by PC Leader Doug Ford a full year before the end of his four-year term.
"He thought he could call an election in the middle of the winter and no one would show up," she said.
"Last week he quit when he called that election, but here's the good news — I'm ready for his job," said Stiles to applause.
Stiles said she sees this early election as an opportunity.
"It's an opportunity to hire more doctors. It's an opportunity to build more affordable houses. To make life more affordable for everybody," she said.
Stiles rejected the idea that Ford needed to call the election early to deal with the threat of tariffs by President Donald Trump, who recently began his second term in office and almost immediately took aim at Canada's economy before temporarily inching those threats back.
"Working people are worried, and rightly so, about the threat of tariffs and what it's going to mean for our jobs, for our livelihoods, for the work that we have done that built these communities. Doug Ford — he's in it just for himself and his friends and he always has been. He's left us so vulnerable," she said.
Stiles promised the crowd she would be making an important health care announcement on Friday, while she spends a second day stumping in the Sault.
She said it was important to make that announcement in Sault Ste. Marie because of the primary care crisis gripping the city, referring to the 2024 de-rostering of patients from the Group Health Centre.
"It wasn't that many months ago that I stood at Queen's Park with steelworkers and retirees who had lost their family doctor, lost their access to primary care. By the way, care that they had created. A health centre that they built," said Stiles.
"The lack of family doctors, the state of our health-care system. This is the legacy of Doug Ford. This is the cost of Doug Ford and the Conservative government after seven long years," said Stiles.
In her remarks, Stiles took a shot at current Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano, who decided to step down and not run for reelection.
"You folks in Sault Ste. Marie have had a guy who was elected eight years ago, and in those eight years he's been a cabinet minister. How much good has that done you?" asked Stiles.
Michele McCleave-Kennedy ran for the NDP in the Sault in the last two elections. She was in attendance at the rally in support of Vezeau-Allen.
Sault Ste. Marie was represented by the NDP at Queen's Park from 1985 to 1990 by Karl Morin-Strom and from 1990 to 2003 by Tony Martin.
"We're going to push this forward and she has a really good shot at getting the NDP to have the banner here in Sault Ste. Marie," said McCleave-Kennedy.
David Timeriski, NDP candidate for Algoma-Manitoulin, was also in attendance at the rally. He said he was impressed by Stiles' speech.
"What I've heard from her is the conviction of helping people get back on their feet. She wants the community to be able to support themselves financially, to have affordable housing. She wants to help lower the cost of living and the cost of food," Timeriski said.
Stiles became leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and the leader of the Official Opposition on Feb. 4, 2023, replacing Andrea Horwath who had held that position since 2009.
Information about other candidates running in Sault Ste. Marie is available here.