Meet the 3 candidates running for Labrador, where housing and food prices are hot topics
MP Yvonne Jones not running for first time in 12 years
Three people are in the running to represent Labrador, a vast riding — and Canada's most sparsely populated — that stretches from the mining communities of Labrador West to the remote Torngat Mountains in the far north.
The Big Land, home to about 26,000 people, has been represented by Liberal MP Yvonne Jones for more than a decade.
With Jones not running for re-election, Labradorians have a slate of new faces to choose from.
Ahead of election day on April 28, CBC News is profiling each of Newfoundland and Labrador's seven ridings.
Here are the candidates for Labrador:
Philip Earle, Liberal Party
Philip Earle, a businessman who says he's worked with all levels of government and knows intimately the issues facing Labrador, says he'd focus intently on policies that would increase affordability across Labrador.
While constituents across the province have overwhelmingly told candidates that the cost of living is their number one political issue this election, Earle says Labradorians, in particular, feel that acutely.
"We've seen significant inflation," Earle said.
"It's hitting the pocketbooks of ordinary Labradorians probably harder than it is hitting people that live in other jurisdictions, particularly in northern regions."
Earle, an aviation executive and appointee to Premier Andrew Furey's economic recovery team, says Mark Carney's Liberals will enact the programs — like the nutritious food subsidy for northern communities — that will directly ease the affordability crisis.
"These costs that everyone has been hit with are too high, and we must work diligently to find a resolution and make the cost of living cheaper for everyday Canadians, but most especially for Labradorians," he said.
Earle says he would also turn his attention to revamping air travel infrastructure and monitor the effects of recent federal funding for health-care delivery in Labrador.
He also pointed out incoming federal funding earmarked for housing in Labrador, especially for seniors.
"Housing is probably the most paramount issue that I've been talking to people at the doorsteps about," he said. "I will continue to advocate. We will find funding, and if there's one project that will become a priority for me, it will be housing."
He also sees avenues to fight climate change beyond the recently scrapped carbon tax — and says it's a vital concern given the destructive impact of thinning sea ice on Indigenous communities.
Just as immediate, he adds, is the threat of U.S. tariffs, and the impact on Labrador's resource-based export economy.
"People are asking for an economist. They're asking for people that understand tariffs, that understand trade, that have a business head," he said.
"Labradorians will look for a leader that will be able to guide us to new markets that may be located outside of North America. And it will become those new markets that will allow our iron ore, our nickel or copper or cobalt and our fish species, to be able to be exported without tariffs so that people can keep [their] jobs."
Marius Normore, New Democratic Party
Marius Normore has worked in the mining industry and academia, and says if elected he will address cost of living concerns and work to ensure the diversification of the Labrador economy.
Housing is also high on his list of priorities, but for Normore, it's not as simple as throwing money at the problem.
"It's easy to say we're going to build more, but the Home Builder Association has made it clear that we don't have trades workers to be able to actually build more houses," he said.
Normore says the NDP is promising to reduce the financial barriers for anyone who wants training in a trade.
He, too, is hearing that affording groceries, fuel and rent is becoming increasingly impossible, and says his party would directly control prices on the shelves to bring those costs down.
"The NDP is committed to putting caps in place to ensure grocery essentials are not too much for the average person to afford," he said.
"We want to make sure that whenever someone goes to the grocery store, they can afford the bare essentials and that the people in charge of the grocery chains, the higher ups, the executives, aren't making a significant profit off of the backs of everyday Labradorians."
Normore says the NDP also wants to cap rent, and argues Newfoundland and Labrador needs to strengthen its tenant protections.
"We have seen time and time again where we come up for renewal on a lease and individuals facing… $500 or more rental increases, and that's perfectly legal," he said.
He says his party also promises family doctors for all by 2030, an especially pertinent issue for Labrador.
"When you get to the north coast, I've heard stories of people waiting days for a medevac just to be able to get down to Goose Bay or St. John's or wherever that appointment may be," he said, adding he would work to increase health-care transfers to Newfoundland and Labrador.
That would "ensure that those barriers are removed for every individual and that health care is not a burden to the individual who needs access," he said.
Ella Wallace, Conservative Party
The Conservative Party website describes Ella Wallace, the deputy mayor of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, as an active volunteer and businesswoman.
Wallace, alongside two other Conservative candidates in Newfoundland and Labrador, refused repeated requests for an interview.
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