The Kenora-Rainy River riding incumbent, who was most recently the minister of both northern development and Indigenous affairs, has not submitted to any media interviews or public debates.

His NDP opponent finds it familiar.

When Rudy Turtle led the River Run demonstration to march on Queen’s Park in September, the former Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows First Nation) Chief was hoping to meet with the Minister and the Premier.

“When we wanted to sit down with Rickford and Doug Ford in Toronto. They didn’t even want to talk to us. That’s not right. They should talk to everyone, regardless of whether he agrees with them or not,” Turtle says. “It seems they’ve been picking and choosing who they want to deal with. It’s almost like a divide and conquer approach.”

Turtle says he’s running because it’s the only way, as he sees it, to get the government to pay attention to Indigenous issues.

The 338 poll forecasts a 99 per cent, virtually certain, victory for Rickford, the minister who added the term “First Nations Economic Reconciliation” to the title of Ontario’s Ministry of Indigenous Affairs. But Turtle has become a high-profile voice of First Nations resistance to unfettered resource exploitation in northwestern Ontario, which would offer voters a real debate — if the local PC candidates made themselves available.

Grassy Narrows has been calling for a moratorium on mining claims in their traditional territory since 2018. The NDP platform doesn’t promise changes to Ontario’s online claim staking, a policy that B.C. and Quebec courts have ruled fails to meet the provincial responsibility to Indigenous consultation. But Turtle says First Nations are tired of taking Ontario to court over inadequate consultation.

“I’m speaking from experience. Sometimes, we just get a letter in the mail and that’s it,” Turtle says. “Everything’s just being fast-tracked and it’s not right. They never come to the community and actually sit down for a couple of days of real information sharing. For example, put slides on the wall for everybody to see – not just chief and council but especially the general public – explaining to people what a tailings pond is, what could happen if it breaks and this is how we’re going to reinforce it so it doesn’t break.”

With regard to the NDP position on online claim-staking for mining prospectors, Thunder Bay-Superior North incumbent NDP candidate Lise Vaugeois sent Ricochet a statement: “Our position is simple: we are supportive of responsible mining in the North. That includes collaboration with Indigenous communities and First nations. The use of the online claim-making tool bypasses this by allowing prospectors to stake a claim without talking to anyone. It disempowers communities. That’s not something we can support.”

Under Turtle’s leadership, Grassy Narrows filed a lawsuit against Canada and Ontario in 2024, alleging governments allowed the Dryden mill owners to pollute the river system, and failing to remediate it constituted a violation of Grassy Narrows members’ treaty right to fish. That suit includes the provision that the Crown cease allowing the Dryden mill to contaminate the water, which scientists found last spring is continuing to exacerbate the effects of methylmercury.

“All these years, we’ve been told there are no more dangerous chemicals being poured into the river. We were assured. Then we found out it’s not the case. They’ve just made the mercury worse,” Turtle said. “Somewhere somebody failed, and those are the people who need to be held accountable. The mill obviously knew what they were doing.” 

The local race is a microcosm of what Ford has made a major election issue: the speed at which Ontario approves resource extraction, and how involved First Nations should be in that process. He has linked development of the proposed Ring of Fire mines to northern Ontario’s patriotic duty to save the provincial economy from US President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs.

“Enough’s enough, it’s been 20 years,” Ford finally said in Sudbury on Sunday, in response to a reporter question about consulting the broader number of First Nations who are involved in a federal environmental assessment process. “Take us to court, do whatever you want, we’re moving.”

Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the lobbying organization representing the chiefs of 49 northern First Nations, including those on all sides of the Ring of Fire, issued a statement on Tuesday, condemning Ford’s “unilateral” declared intention to expedite the mineral deposit’s development.

“These are not ‘Ontario’s minerals,’ they exist within our territories, and any attempt to dictate their development without our full and meaningful involvement is an overreach of provincial authority and represents a complete failure to understand and honour the relationship between the government and First Nations in Ontario,” the statement attributed to NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler reads. “Election promises do not equate to meaningful action, and First Nations do not operate on short-term political timelines. The unilateral will of the day’s government will not dictate the speed of development on our lands, and continuing to disregard our legal rights services to reinforced the colonial and racist approach that we have always had to fight against.”

Rickford holds degrees in both common and civil law, and he’s been leading the Indigenous file under Ford for six years. He tore up the previous Liberal Framework Agreement in 2019, which was designed to consult with those communities on the Ring of Fire.

Meanwhile, Matawa council First Nations who live in that territory have expressed that Ford has been conducting consultation by a “divide and conquer” strategy.

Instead, Rickford has denied all interview requests, prompting some regional news agencies to publish his candidate profile without his involvement. Kenora-Rainy River hasn’t held a candidates debate since 2018, when Rickford won the seat the first time. Similarly, neither PC candidate attended the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce debate last week.

When Ford was taking a questions from Thunder Bay media on Saturday as to why PC candidates weren’t attending debates, he said, “Some are and some aren’t but they’re in the media every single day. They’ve logged more kilometres than all three parties combined – as a matter of fact, double the amount, probably close to triple the amount. They’re getting out there, sweeping and talking to the people, meeting the people, and that’s the most important thing.”

Ford was unclear as to how he became privy to the mileage local candidates in other parties had travelled. It’s also unclear what Ford meant by his candidates being “in the media.” Rickford has been producing daily 40-second messages to post on social media. These messages are projections, without any pretense of accountability interacting with the public will. These are projected messages, where the question for Ford related to his candidates being held accountable publicly to answer the public’s questions.

That same day Ford urged First Nations to sue Ontario, Rickford mentioned Ford’s northern tour in a social media video, but it focused on how he’s meeting constituents in Emo to talk about “northern prosperity” and vague promises to process critical minerals somewhere between the Manitoba border and North Bay.

Turtle is campaigning to sit across the table from someone who has refused to meet with him, and hasn’t answered questions at public debates.

“Some people, their mind is closed,” Turtle says. “That was the plan when we wanted to meet Doug Ford. We just wanted to talk to him and we hoped he would at least hear what we have to say. Even if he doesn’t agree with us, at least come and sit down and listen to what we have to say. You never know. That’s the way I approach it, with an open mind.”