Sudbury byelection brings Horwath, Wynne, Schreiner, Wilson to town

Ontario’s political leaders are scheduling visits to Sudbury, trying to drum up support for their candidates in the upcoming byelection.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was in Sudbury Monday, canvassing for her candidate.

She said voters will be seeing a lot of her and Suzanne Shawbonquit over the next few weeks.

“As leader, for me it’s important to stand by my candidate,” she said.

Leaders from the other political parties have already made campaign stops in Sudbury, including Liberal leader and Premier Kathleen Wynne. Green Party leader Mike Schreiner was also in Sudbury last week.

Interim Progressive Conservative leader Jim Wilson will come later this week.

A politics professor with Laurentian University said these visits can win votes.

“It demonstrates to the voter that the leaders are committed to the riding,” Nadia Verrelli said.

‘Sidelined’ candidate

Verrelli said this isn’t a typical byelection. Andrew Olivier decided to run as an independent after he was rejected as a nominee for the provincial Liberals.

The Liberals instead chose former Sudbury NDP MP Glenn Thibeault as its candidate.

Verrelli said Olivier may have the edge on voter sentiment, even though he doesn’t have a leader to raise his profile.

“Andrew was sidelined by the Liberal party, so that may play in his favour,” she said.

Verrelli said she’s interested in seeing if more visits from political leaders will result in a larger voter turnout than typical byelections.