NDP to pick candidate for Sudbury on Wednesday

With the federal NDP surging in national polls, New Democrats in Sudbury will nominate their candidate for the October byelection/election next week.

“Please join us Wednesday, June 24, at the United Steelworker's Hall as Sudbury New Democrats elect a candidate to run in the next federal election,” says a new release on the party's Facebook page. “All are welcome to join as we nominate our candidate and the next MP for Sudbury.”

Registration for voting members begins at 6 p.m. and closes at 7:30 p.m. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

Two people are vying for the nomination: 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, and a Development Coordinator with Reseau ACCESS Network.

Loewenberg almost won the provincial seat for Sudbury's NDP in 2011, when he came within 500 votes of beating Liberal Rick Bartolucci. This is Harris' first run for a nomination for the New Democrats.

The winner will face off against accountant Fred Slade, who is running for the Conservatives in Sudbury, Laurentian economics professor David Robinson, who is running for the Green Party, and lawyer and businessman Paul Lefebvre, who is running for the Liberals.

The seat is has been vacant since January, when former NDP MP Glenn Thibeault resigned to run – successfully – for the provincial Liberals in the February byelection. That vote was called after NDP MPP Joe Cimino resigned in November.

Because there was a vacancy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had to call a byelection, which will be held in October, the same time as the federal election is scheduled, creating an unusually long campaign period.