Truckers hoping to drive through change in Ontario’s north

TIMMINS, Ont. – The Ontario general election is well underway and getting a lot of air time, but no one would fault you if you hadn’t heard of the Northern Ontario Party (NOP), or its two truck-driving candidates. The party, as its name would suggest, is only located in northern Ontario and prides itself on having no whip or central campaign to force candidates to stay on a single message. That riding-first policy was part of what attracted Shawn Poirier and Gary Schaap to the smaller party. The two drivers each say the lack of party line to toe mean they get to focus on issues that matter to them and their potential constituents – concerns that are shared by those in the trucking industry.