Nickel Belt

Nickel Belt wrapped around the urban core of Greater Sudbury in a broad arc through Northern Ontario, encompassing the suburban and rural communities that ringed the Sudbury Basin. From Chelmsford and Dowling in the west through Azilda, Val Caron, Val Therese, and Hanmer in the north to Coniston, Capreol, and Wahnapitae in the east, the riding's name reflected the mining industry that had defined the region since nickel-copper ore was discovered during construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s.

Candidates

Marc G. Serre (Liberal) — A Franco-Ontarian raised in the communities of Field, Verner, and Chelmsford within the riding, Serre held a Bachelor of Commerce from Laurentian University with a specialization in human resources and marketing. Before entering Parliament, he managed business services for EastLink's Ontario operations and served on the West Nipissing municipal council and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique du Nouvel-Ontario. His father, Gaetan Serre, had represented Nickel Belt from 1968 to 1972. First elected in 2015, he was seeking a second term.

Stef Paquette (NDP) — Born in Chelmsford, Paquette was one of the most recognized Franco-Ontarian artists in Northern Ontario, working across music, theatre, television, and radio. He was a principal cast member of the TVO medical drama Hard Rock Medical, playing the character Charlie Riviere over four seasons. As a musician, he launched a solo career in 2002 and won multiple Trille Or awards from the Association des professionnels de la chanson et de la musique. He entered the race as a first-time candidate motivated by concerns over rural connectivity and northern economic disparities.

Aino Laamanen (Conservative) — Running in the riding for the second consecutive election, Laamanen described herself as a small-c conservative who called for stronger climate action, improved services for vulnerable populations, and a renewed relationship with Indigenous communities. No Conservative had ever won the seat in the riding's history.

Casey Lalonde (Green Party) — Lalonde carried the Green Party banner in the riding, campaigning on environmental stewardship in the mining region.

Mikko Paavola ran for the People's Party.

About the Riding

Mining remained the economic anchor of the riding and the broader Sudbury Basin. Vale, the Brazilian mining conglomerate that absorbed the former Inco, operated mines, a mill, a smelter, and a refinery in the Greater Sudbury area. Glencore, successor to Falconbridge, ran integrated nickel operations with underground mines and a smelter. Together, the two companies employed thousands of workers and drove the regional economy, though boom-and-bust commodity cycles had been a fact of life for generations.

The riding was home to one of Ontario's largest Franco-Ontarian populations, with roughly a third of residents claiming French as their mother tongue. The Valley East communities of Val Caron, Val Therese, and Hanmer were francophone-majority towns where French-language schools, parishes, and cultural institutions had sustained Franco-Ontarian identity for more than a century. Capreol had origins as a Canadian National Railway divisional point, while Chelmsford and the western communities grew around mine sites.

Environmental remediation of decades of mining activity was a point of local pride — Sudbury's internationally recognized regreening program had transformed a once-barren landscape of blackened rock into a recovering boreal ecosystem. Broadband connectivity in rural areas, healthcare access, and French-language services were perennial campaign issues across this vast northern constituency.