Thunder Bay—Rainy River

Thunder Bay—Rainy River is a vast northwestern Ontario riding that reaches from the southern wards of the city of Thunder Bay westward along the Canada–United States border to the town of Rainy River on Lake of the Woods. Fort Frances, the largest community west of Thunder Bay, sits on the Rainy River opposite International Falls, Minnesota, while Atikokan occupies a former iron-mining centre midway between, surrounded by boreal wilderness.

Candidates

Marcus Powlowski (Liberal) — An emergency room physician at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre who held five post-secondary degrees, including a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Toronto, a law degree also from the University of Toronto, a Master of Public Health from Harvard University, and a Master of Laws from Georgetown University. Before returning to Thunder Bay, Powlowski practised medicine for seven years in Swaziland, The Gambia, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu, and served as a health legislation consultant for the World Health Organization.

Linda Rydholm (Conservative) — A former long-serving Thunder Bay city councillor who sat on council for eighteen years before being defeated in the Neebing ward race in the 2018 municipal election. Rydholm had also served nine years as a school board trustee and had worked as a chiropractor and business owner in the community.

Yuk-Sem Won (NDP) — Born and raised in Hearst, Ontario, Won graduated from Lakehead University and worked as a teacher in the public school system before joining the faculty in the Human Resources program at Confederation College in Thunder Bay. She also served as local president and regional grievance officer within the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Amanda Moddejonge (Green Party) — A former member of the Canadian military with a background in environmental science and emergency management. Moddejonge had previously run for the provincial Greens in Thunder Bay—Superior North in the 2018 Ontario election.

Andrew Hartnell (People's Party) also contested the riding.

About the Riding

The riding has been shaped by the boom-and-bust rhythms of the resource economy. The closure of the Resolute Forest Products paper mill in Fort Frances—once the town's largest employer—devastated the community and became emblematic of the forestry sector's decline across northern Ontario. Atikokan faced its own reckoning when its iron mine closed decades earlier, though the Ontario Power Generation station and proximity to Quetico Provincial Park—one of the premier canoe-tripping destinations in North America—provided alternative employment and a foundation for a tourism economy.

The southern wards of Thunder Bay contribute the riding's largest population base, where residents work in transportation, health care, education, and the grain-handling facilities at the Lakehead terminal elevators on Lake Superior. Several First Nations, including Fort William, Couchiching, and Seine River, are part of the constituency, and issues of clean water access, housing conditions, and economic development on reserves featured prominently in the campaign. The contest was an open-seat race following the retirement of incumbent Liberal Don Rusnak, drawing a field of first-time federal candidates competing to hold the riding for their respective parties.