Sudbury Liberal candidate opens New Sudbury campaign office

With February's byelection scandal still in everyone's minds, and with Thomas Mulcair's NDP surging ahead of everyone in the polls, Liberal Paul Lefebvre knows he has a challenge ahead of him.

"I'm looking forward to it," Lefebvre said Friday.

The Sudbury federal Liberal candidate opened his campaign headquarters on Barrydowne Road on Friday.

He's running in the odd byelection/election campaign in Sudbury ahead of the October federal election. After leading the polls for months and months, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau finds himself in a statistical tie with Mulcair and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Sudbury was a Liberal bastion for years under the late Diane Marleau, a former cabinet minister who passed away in 2013. Her husband, Paul, was on hand for the launch Friday, as was Liberal MPP Glenn Thibeault, the former Sudbury NDP MP who crossed the floor earlier this year, creating the vacancy in Sudbury.

Whatever knocks the Liberal brand has taken recently, Lefebvre said it doesn't change his approach: work hard, meet as many Sudburians as he can and let them know what he's all about.

"I've already knocked on 2,000 doors, I've attended over 45 events since my nomination meeting, and I'm going to continue that,” he said Friday. "I've got to meet Sudburians, let Sudbury know who I am, and let them know my track record. From there, they can make their decision.

“The only thing I can do myself is work. I can't worry about anything else."

He's running because he says it's time for change in Ottawa, and time for Sudbury to have a voice in government, as they did under Marleau a decade ago.

"We need to have a voice there at the decision table," Lefebvre said.

"I want to make sure we get local infrastructure money back here in Sudbury. We haven't had that — you can see that in the roads and in a lot of the infrastructure that we have."

He also wants to make a national mental-health strategy a priority for the next federal government, because it's something that negatively affects so many Canadians.

"It affects not only individuals, but families,” he said. “We don't have one right now in Canada and we need to be talking about it. I think we need leadership there and I want to play a role in bringing that."

He also wants to make roads funding a priority. The $90 million Maley Drive extension, for example, has funding committed from the local and provincial governments, but the feds have yet to commit.

"The mining industry is saying we require (Maley),” he said. “The local municipal council has determined they believe it's a priority for them. My role as and MP is to be the voice of our community and if that's something they want us to champion, I will do that."

In the meantime, he's pacing his byelection campaign, focusing on getting organized and lining up volunteers.

"We're going to slowly roll it out ... then we'll ramp it up, like the other parties are going to do, in September," he said.

"But right now we're taking the opportunity to get well organized -- as you can see, we've already opened our office. We're going to create the buzz, create the momentum, and make sure the people get to know who I am and the Liberal Party platform."

Accountant Fred Slade is running for the Conservatives in Sudbury, while Laurentian economics professor David Robinson is running for the Green Party.

The NDP has yet to choose a candidate. Two people – Paul Loewenberg, operations manager at the Laughing Buddha and The Townehouse Tavern, and Stephanie Harris, chair of the International Women's Week Committee and the Women and HIV Community Development Co-ordinator with Reseau ACCESS Network – have declared they are running for the nomination.