A Timmins councillor will be on the ballot in the upcoming federal election.
Michelle Boileau has been confirmed as the Liberal candidate for Timmins-James Bay in the Oct. 21 election.
Since announcing she was seeking the nomination last month, Boileau has talked politics with a lot of people.
While the issues people are concerned about vary, she said there's one key message.
"I keep hearing it’s time for a change and so I interpret that to mean a change in parties representing them at the federal level. And also just a change in terms of what we get here in Timmins-James Bay and how we’re considered in the grand scheme of things,” she said.
Boileau has been involved with the Liberal Party of Canada since 2015. She is currently the regional director of recruitment and partnerships with Contact North, and held a position with College Boreal prior to that.
She was elected as one of four Ward 5 councillors in the municipal election held in October.
A sitting councillor is able to run for higher office, either provincially or federally. If elected, they have to resign their municipal seat.
Accepting the nomination, she said there's a lot of untapped potential in the region.
She said investments are needed in housing, healthcare, in training, infrastructure, innovative business and clean industry, and addressing the complex issues affecting Indigenous people.
"It’s only then that we will fully benefit from everything that this wonderful land and its people can offer. So we can’t risk going backwards,” she said.
When it comes to climate change, she said the riding is one of the rare ones that the significant impacts can be seen.
"We see the freeze ups happening later in the year, we see the melts faster in the spring, and forest fires and the change in wildlife behaviours. We have to be part of the solutions,” she said.
Having been officially named the candidate, Boileau is off to Ottawa today for the Liberal candidate sessions.
“And then of course it’ll just be campaigning, hitting the pavement, so really trying to build that team of volunteers. I’ve already got a pretty solid team started, so we’ll just keep trying to recruit volunteers for events and of course start trying to fundraise,” she said.
Earlier this year, incumbent Charlie Angus was chosen as the riding's NDP candidate, and Iroquois Falls' Renaud Roy will be on the ballot for the People's Party of Canada.
The local Conservative riding association is expected to name its candidate later this week. There are two candidates vying for the nomination — Kraymr Grenke and Morgan Ellerton.
