Battle for Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay ridings puts northern issues in spotlight [Video]

Lisa Vezeau-Allen says it’s not just Sault Ste. Marie’s steelworkers who are bracing for looming U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

“I was talking to a clerk at a store and they’re like, ‘Oh, I hope I still have my job after the tariffs,’” the NDP candidate in the northern Ontario riding said in a recent interview.

Algoma Steel is her city’s largest employer, said Vezeau-Allen, and the pain of tariffs on a product that has kept the local economy running for generations would be felt across the entire community.

“It’s not even just people in the steel industry. It’s people working retail that are worried about what are they going to do.”

Health care, affordable housing, mental health and addictions are all pressing issues in the north that party leaders have sought to highlight during this month’s snap election campaign, including at a debate specific to northern issues …