Federal election 2015 — Sudbury

Morning North1:47:59CBC Sudbury debate

Markus Schwabe moderates a debate of the four main candidates in the Sudbury riding in front of a live audience at St. Andrew's Place in Downtown Sudbury.

Sudbury is a battleground riding once again, following the defection of NDP MP Glenn Thibeault to the Ontario Liberals in December.

Thibeault, who rose in the ranks of the federal NDP to become the party's caucus chair, was first elected in 2008. He defeated long-time incumbent Diane Marleau and ended 40 years of Liberal control of the riding.

Jean Raymond Audet - Independent

The former CN Rail employee has become a familiar name on the Sudbury ballot, running for mayor in the fall of 2014 and for the People's Political Party of Ontario in the Sudbury byelection earlier this year. 

Paul Lefebvre - Liberal

Lefebvre is a tax lawyer and a former commissioner at the Human Rights Commission of Ontario, but is best known in Sudbury as the owner of Francophone radio stations and newspapers across northeastern Ontario. He is also the founder and chair of the Jazz Sudbury festival and past chair of the Sudbury Community Foundation.

Paul Loewenberg - NDP

Loewenberg is well-known in the Sudbury music scene for being artistic director of the Northern Lights Festival Boreal. He is also the operations manager at the Townehouse Tavern. Loewenberg previously carried the NDP banner in the 2011 provincial election, coming close to unseating stalwart Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci.  

David Popescu - Independent

A perennial candidate in municipal, provincial and federal elections, Popescu is well-known in Sudbury for his radical Christian views. In the 2008 federal election, he was convicted of committing a hate crime for comments made about homosexuals during a debate. Earlier this year, Popescu was again charged with inciting hate.

David Robinson - Green

Robinson is a prominent Laurentian University professor and economist frequently offers his views on the Sudbury and northern Ontario economy in local media and played a role in the founding of the mining supply industry in the city, as well as the new architecture school.

Elizabeth Rowley - Communist

This social activist has put her name on a ballot more than a dozen times, going back to the early 1970s. She's run in Alberta, southern Ontario and served as a Toronto area school board trustee, but this is her first time running in Sudbury. Rowley is also currently the party leader for the Communist Party of Ontario.

Fred Slade - Conservative 

Born and raised in Sudbury, Slade runs his own accounting firm and sits on the boards of numerous charitable organizations. He finished second to Thibeault in the 2011 election and his father Gord ran for the Progressive Conservatives in Nickel Belt in the 1984 federal election, also finishing second.