The way Doug Lawrance sees it, there’s no riding in Ontario quite like Kiiwetinoong.

First off, it is simultaneously the biggest and second-smallest electoral district in the province, a paradox it pulls off by covering almost one third of Ontario’s map — an expanse in its northwest corner from the Manitoba border to the shores of Hudson Bay and south about halfway to Thunder Bay — while holding a population of just 32,987. Lawrence, the Liberal candidate and mayor of the riding’s biggest community, Sioux Lookout, likes to point out that this means there’s only one person per 10 square kilometres in Kiiwetinoong — a sparseness that, in Toronto, would place just 63 lonely souls in the entire city.

The riding, in other words, has “very unique, unique considerations,” Lawrance said.

And that’s kind of the point.

Last summer, a non-partisan body called the Far North Electoral Boundaries Commission recommended the creation of two new ridings in northern Ontario. The idea was to strike a balance between the strictures of representation-by-population — a central tenet of Canadian democracy that holds each vote should carry roughly the same influence — with the “goal of representation of Indigenous people.”

Thus, after months of consultation and consideration, Kiiwetinoong was born. The new riding was carved out of the former Kenora-Rainy River, where at least 68 per cent of the population is Indigenous. Now, local candidates predict that true local representation — justification for the awarding of a single MPP to a population roughly three times smaller than the average Ontario riding — will finally come to the north.

“Under the old structure of Kenora-Rainy River, the north was always left out,” said Sol Mamakwa, a health official with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, an umbrella group that represents 49 First Nations across northern Ontario, who is running as a New Democrat in the riding.

“With the new boundaries, it really gives (Ontario) an opportunity to have a voice from the north — not just First Nations, but the people of the municipalities as well,” he said.

The Conservative candidate in Kiiwetinoong, Lac Seul First Nation Chief Clifford Bull, declined an interview for this story. Other candidates vying to become Kiiwetinoong’s first MPP include Christine Penner Polle, author of a book on climate change activism who has worked for the municipality of Red Lake, and Kenneth Jones for the Northern Ontario Party.

Mamakwa, who is from the Kingfisher Lake First Nation and now lives in Sioux Lookout, said improving access to health care for small northern communities is a huge priority. The morning he spoke with the Star, Mamakwa visited a 100-bed facility in Sioux Lookout, where people from many of the fly-in communities across the north have to stay when they need medical attention. He said it’s often overcrowded, and that day had met an elderly woman from Fort Severn who was in a wheelchair after enduring septic shock because she was unable to receive required medical attention quick enough in the remote community, which is the northernmost settlement in Ontario, on the shore of Hudson Bay.

Communities in the riding have also been rocked by crises. Kiiwetinoong encompasses Grassy Narrows, the First Nation where mercury from an old paper mill has contaminated fish and sediment in the Wabigoon River and poisoned residents. Other communities have seen alarming streaks of suicides, including two 12-year-olds in Pikangikum First Nation, a 15-year-old girl in Nibinamik and a 21-year-old man from Fort Severn who died in within days of one another last July.

Then there are basic infrastructure obstacles. For instance, many First Nations in Kiiwetinoong lack safe drinking water, including Neskantaga, where a boil-water advisory has been in place since 1995.

“People down in southern Ontario, they’re surprised at what goes on here,” Mamakwa said. “That’s why I want to try and be able to bring that voice for the north, for Kiiwetinoong, at Queen’s Park. I’ve lived it. I hear the stories every day.”

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For Lawrance, this why the creation of Kiiwetinoong — which means “the north” in Ojibwe — was so important. The particular concerns of the region’s 30 First Nations and four municipalities could be overlooked by the local MPP, who also represented the urban centre of Kenora, now part of a separate riding.

His hope is that he will be elected based on his work in Sioux Lookout. If he succeeds, his priorities will include pushing for more road access to the far north, where many First Nations are only accessible by expensive air travel. “We’re way behind in that,” Lawrance said, adding that creating more infrastructure — such as the $1.6-billion Wataynikaneyap Power Transmission Line that will extend the power grid to 16 First Nations currently on diesel generation — is crucial to economic growth and resource development in a riding adjacent to the vaunted Ring of Fire mining area.

“What this riding needs,” said Lawrance, “is recognition of our unique needs (and) recognition of our unique opportunities.”