Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie sits on the north shore of the St. Marys River at the rapids connecting Lake Superior to Lake Huron, directly across from its American twin city in Michigan. The federal riding of Sault Ste. Marie encompassed the city proper and surrounding communities in the Algoma District of northern Ontario.

Candidates

Bryan Hayes (Conservative) — Hayes was born in Marville, France, where his father was stationed with the Canadian Armed Forces. A Certified General Accountant and small business owner in Sault Ste. Marie, he served on Sault Ste. Marie city council for eight years before entering federal politics. Hayes took up the Conservative cause in part to honour the memory of his friend John Rowswell, the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie who had intended to seek the Conservative nomination but passed away from cancer in August 2010.

Tony Martin (NDP) — Martin was the incumbent MP, first elected federally in 2004 after representing the provincial riding of Sault Ste. Marie in the Ontario legislature from 1990 to 2003. Born in Drogheda, Ireland, he was raised in Wawa, Ontario, and earned a degree from Laurentian University. Before entering politics, he worked in social services helping homeless and marginalized populations, and co-founded the Sault Ste. Marie Soup Kitchen. In the NDP shadow cabinet under Jack Layton, Martin served as critic for social policy and childcare.

Christian Provenzano (Liberal) — Provenzano was a Sault Ste. Marie lawyer who had previously run as the Liberal candidate in the riding in 2006. He was the nephew of former Liberal MP Carmen Provenzano, who represented the area from 1997 to 2004. Before the 2011 campaign, Provenzano had served as chief of staff to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

Luke Macmichael ran for the Green Party, Randy Riauka for the Christian Heritage Party, and Mike Taffarel for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

About the Riding

Sault Ste. Marie had a population of approximately 75,000 as of the 2011 census, with a median age of 45.7 years—considerably older than the national average. The city’s economy has long revolved around Algoma Steel (known at the time as Essar Steel Algoma), the second-largest steel producer in Canada and the community’s largest employer with approximately 2,800 workers at its main plant. The company had emerged from creditor protection in 2002 and was subsequently acquired by Indian conglomerate Essar Global in 2007.

Beyond steel, the local economy drew on forestry, tourism, and health services. The Sault Area Hospital and Algoma University were significant employers. The city’s location on the Trans-Canada Highway and at the international bridge to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, made cross-border trade and tourism important contributors to the local economy.

As of 2011, the riding faced persistent challenges with population decline, an aging workforce, and the vulnerability of a steel-dependent economy to global commodity cycles. Unemployment and economic diversification were key local concerns heading into the election.