Kenora

Kenora is the largest federal riding in Ontario by area, spanning roughly 407,000 square kilometres of northwestern Ontario from the Manitoba border eastward across the boreal Shield. The riding takes in the towns of Kenora, Dryden, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake, Pickle Lake, and Ignace, along with dozens of First Nations communities, many of which are accessible only by air or winter roads. The vast northern Patricia Portion of the district is home to remote communities such as Sandy Lake, Pikangikum, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, and Fort Severn on the coast of Hudson Bay.

Candidates

Bob Nault (Liberal) was a veteran of federal politics seeking a comeback after more than a decade away from Parliament. First elected as MP for Kenora—Rainy River in 1988, he won four consecutive elections and served as Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the Chretien government from 1999 to 2003. He left politics in 2004 to establish a consulting firm.

Howard Hampton (NDP) represented the provincial riding of Rainy River and later Kenora—Rainy River in the Ontario legislature from 1987 to 2011. He served as Ontario's Attorney General under Premier Bob Rae beginning in 1990 and later as Minister of Natural Resources. Hampton led the Ontario NDP from 1996 to 2009 and was making his first bid for federal office.

Greg Rickford (Conservative) was the incumbent MP, first elected in 2008 as the first Conservative to hold the Kenora seat since 1921. Before entering politics, Rickford worked as a nurse and a lawyer in remote First Nations communities in the Kenora District, holding degrees from Mohawk College, the University of Victoria, Universite Laval, and McGill University. He served as Minister of Natural Resources from March 2014 and previously held the portfolio of Minister of State for Science and Technology.

Ember C. McKillop (Green Party) was an elementary school teacher in Dryden with eleven years of classroom experience. She focused her campaign on sustainable economic development and improving First Nations education.

Kelvin Boucher-Chicago (Independent) also appeared on the ballot.

About the Riding

The dominant federal issue in Kenora in 2015 was the crisis of drinking water on First Nations reserves. At the time of the election, more than a dozen northern Ontario First Nations communities had been under long-term boil-water advisories, with Neskantaga First Nation enduring the longest such advisory in the country at over twenty years. All major candidates pledged to address the water crisis, and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made a national campaign promise to end all boil-water advisories on reserves within five years. Beyond water, the riding's challenges included inadequate housing in remote communities, limited transportation infrastructure, and the economic pressures facing resource industries such as forestry and mining. The contest between Nault, Hampton, and Rickford attracted national attention as a three-way battle among political heavyweights, each bringing extensive experience in Indigenous affairs and northern policy.