With only a week remaining in the 2025 federal election, longtime Liberal MP and cabinet minister Bill Blair is in Sault Ste. Marie Monday and Tuesday in support of Terry Sheehan's re-election campaign.
It's not the first time Blair has appeared in Sault Ste. Marie in the home stretch of an election campaign. In 2021, just days before the end of that contest, Blair appeared in the Sault to praise Sheehan's efforts in lobbying for the $420-million federal investment into Algoma Steel and its Electric Arc Furnace project.
Blair, the federal Minister of Defence, appeared at the local Liberal campaign office to lend encouragement to about 40 volunteers who are criss-crossing the city and working the phones in an effort to send Sheehan back to Parliament Hill.
"I've learned a little bit about public service over the course of my life and I've learned a little bit about politics — from good friends who know a little bit more about it than I do — none of this works without you. And so thanks. Thanks for doing everything you're doing to make this happen for the good people of Sault Ste. Marie and for Canada," said Blair in his remarks to volunteers.
Blair told the crowd recent infrastructure and defence shipbuilding contracts didn't originally have stipulations to use only Canadian steel.
"I just signed contracts to build 15 new destroyers for the Canadian Navy. We're filling up contracts for a company General Dynamics in London, Ontario, to build new armoured vehicles for the Canadian Armed Forces. We're making huge new investments in housing, in training barracks, in infrastructure, in airport hangars, in runways, for the military right across this country, and we're about to make a huge new investment in other types of infrastructure and most importantly housing," said Blair.
He added: "Terry called me and said, 'Do you have anything in those contracts that requires that we use Canadian steel and softwood lumber in those contracts?' and I said, 'No.' And he said, 'Do something about that.' So I went right to the prime minister and [he] gave me very clear direction. He said, 'Bill, you put that right in every contract. We'll build those ships with Canadian steel. We'll build those armoured vehicles with Canadian steel. We're going to build all of that infrastructure using Canadian steel and Canadian lumber because we can do for ourselves what the Americans think that they can take from us."
Blair has been a Liberal MP since 2015, the same year he retired from serving 10 years as chief of police in Toronto.
During his appearance, Blair was interviewed by the Sault Star and SooToday.
"One chief takes questions, while another one doesn't," said Sheehan, referring to his rival Hugh Stevenson, who retired as the chief of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service days before being announced as the Conservative candidate for Sault Ste. Marie—Algoma.
Since the campaign began, Stevenson has been a no-show at local debates and has shied away from most media interviews.
Intended only for volunteers, Monday's gathering was significantly smaller than the crowd Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre drew earlier this month at The Machine Shop.
Although Liberal leader Mark Carney has made a number of campaign stops supporting heavy industry across the country, he has not yet made an appearance in Sault Ste. Marie.
When Blair supported Sheehan’s campaign in 2021, then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau also did not visit Sault Ste. Marie.
In an interview, Blair didn't directly criticize Stevenson, but questioned the party he is seeking to represent and its leader.
"There's a lot of different ways to serve your community, and I also look not just at the individual but the party he is running for. The difference, frankly, between Mr. Carney and Mr. Poilievre could not be more stark for me," said Blair.
"Poilievre is a career politician that in 20 years has contributed and accomplished next to nothing as a politician and I compare that against a lifetime of service for Mr. Carney — remarkable accomplishments where he's managed really difficult crises."
Asked about Poilievre's campaign promises to toughen laws, Blair said there is a difference between campaign slogans and actions.
"When the Conservatives were last in power, they got rid of a thousand RCMP officers. They got rid of nearly a thousand border service officers and they closed all the integrated proceeds of crime units. That's their record," said Blair.
The Liberal platform released Saturday promises to hire 1,000 RCMP officers and 1,000 border service officers, part of $130 billion in announced new spending. The Conservative Party is expected to release its costed platform on Tuesday.
"One of the things I learned is that cops count and when you have the right people and the right resources properly resourced to go out and do the job, that's how you keep community safe," said Blair.
Some of the Conservative leader's tough talk doesn't make any sense, said Blair.
"One of the things he just recently announced is he was going to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to deal with the possibility of parole for multiple murderers in this country. There are 19 people serving life sentences for multiple murders in Canadian prisons and not once in our history has any of them ever been given parole. Not once. So Mr. Poilievre — it's just a slogan. It's an excuse. He wants to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to solve a problem this country has never had," said Blair.
Sheehan and Blair have a press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning in Sault Ste. Marie.
Election Day is Monday, April 28.
Advance polls run from Friday to Monday.
Voters can also cast their ballots at any Elections Canada office before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22.