Icy stairs and snow bank signs: campaigning in Ontario’s winter election [Video]

NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa, running for re-election in the riding of Kiiwetinoong, poses in Sioux Lookout, Ont., in this Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO – Sol Mamakwa

Falling down stairs, pushing stuck cars out of snow banks and cancelling events are just some of the challenges candidates have faced on the winter campaign trail, but Sol Mamakwa may have them all beat.

This is Ontario’s first winter election campaign since 1981 and the incumbent NDP candidate for Kiiwetinoong in northwestern Ontario has rented a plane with skis so he can try to visit some of the 24 fly-in First Nation communities in his riding that spans nearly 300,000 square kilometres.

“(It’s) not too bad, but it’s frickin’ cold right now,” he said recently during a break from campaigning in Pickle Lake. “Last week has been minus 40.”

He was trying to visit two to three fly-in …