THUNDER BAY -- Only hours before Justin Trudeau landed in the city on Saturday, Thunder Bay-Rainy River NDP MP John Rafferty and Thunder Bay-Superior North NDP candidate Andrew Foulds approached the media to question the Liberal Party leader's integrity.
Trudeau has been under fire for the sudden resignation of Dan Gagnier as his campaign co-chair, less than a week before the federal election.
Gagnier, who was also working as a lobbyist for TransCanada, sent what Trudeau called an "inappropriate" email to the company regarding how it could influence a prospective Liberal government to adopt its Energy East Pipeline project.
Rafferty called the event an "extension of the culture of entitlement," a phenomenon he believes has existed in the Liberal Party for decades.
"Justin must have condoned this. They're pals," he said. "He must have known since the spring that he was doing this but only when it becomes public does Justin Trudeau say this is inappropriate."
Foulds insisted the incident shows the NDP is the only party of real change.
"We have an individual that was in the 'War Room,' that was in the plane at times and on the side, working with an oil company and even Mr. Trudeau admits that was inappropriate," he said.
"I think Canadians are sick and tired of this kind of behavior and should demand integrity from their politicians."
The NDP's position on the Energy East Pipeline is similar to the Liberals. While both parties have given a soft endorsement of the pipeline, both leaders have piled on Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's consultative and environmental processes.
"Tom Mulcair and the NDP have been clear that as long as all the safeguards are in place, the environmental reviews and most importantly the social contract is there for that project to happen, it can probably go ahead," Rafferty said.
"But the social contract is what has sunk the Conservative government because they didn't consult the stakeholders and make sure everybody was on board. Northern Gateway is a good example. In 10 years, not one inch of pipeline has been built anywhere because there's no social contract."
Despite Rafferty and Foulds having called a press conference at the Thunder Bay Airport an hour before Trudeau was scheduled to have arrived, the NDP candidates denied the timing of his characterization of the Liberal leader was trying to get out in front of Trudeau's Saturday message.
"This has unfolded relatively quickly and our ability to react and do our research, people deserve due diligence," Foulds said. "We did have a press conference and it happened to be today."
