According to Statistics Canada, the country is officially in recession in the middle of an election campaign.
On Tuesday, the agency confirmed the Canadian economy has contracted for two straight quarters, this time losing 0.5 per cent of its gross domestic product.
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper pointed out June figures showed growth.
Although Thunder Bay-Rainy River Conservative candidate Moe Comuzzi wasn't available for an interview, the other three candidates hoping to become the riding's Member of Parliament expressed different directions they would take to get the economy out of recession.
John Rafferty, NDP
"I'm not surprised at anything that has happened since 2007 or 2008 but some economists will tell you we've been in recession since Stephen Harper has been the Prime Minister," said Rainy River NDP MP John Rafferty.
Rafferty promised the NDP would lay out a targeted job strategy, comprised of research and development incentives, innovation funding and subsidization for small business job creation.
Citing the NDP government in Manitoba where small companies pay zero in taxes, Rafferty said increasing taxes on large corporations and decreasing small business contribution can help Canada out of recession. He
"They're (large companies) sitting on cash. They're not creating jobs. They (large companies) get billions and billions of tax breaks over the years, they hang onto the cash don't invest they don't invest in business, they don't hire people so they're sitting on all this cash and they didn't put the cash to work," Rafferty said.
"I think there's a pretty clear indication of how you create those jobs. Those businesses have to say, okay, if we are going to get a tax break, there has to be some strings attached. We are goign to create some jobs. We're going to invest in our businesses. We're going to invest in our communities."
Christy Radbourne, Green Party
Green candidate Christy Radbourne said Northwestern Ontario has been feeling the recession. When manufacturing collapsed in Ontario, she pointed out, many citizens in the riding she hopes to represent moved to Alberta and now that the oil industry is cooling off, they need industry here when they come home.
"Folks have been feeling the pain since the oil prices started dropping and that's really the result of Harper putting all our eggs in one basket and that's big oil -- because that's who he represents -- rather than Canadians," she said.
"The Greens have a plan to get us off big oil in a slow and measured way; a way to also collect revenue that's appropriate -- according to their carbon output -- and to bring those revenues back to the people so we can help turn that around."
The Liberal, NDP and Green candidates all conceded global trade and markets are at play in hollowing out Ontario's manufacturing sector and each pinned it to free trade policies that have exported Canadian jobs. Radbourne committed to opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
"We have almost become a colony of China at this point. That's where Harper has put us. If you look at the Ring of Fire, where is the Ring of Fire materials expected to go to? China. They're getting it for a bargain basement price, manufacturing it and selling it back to us and that doesn't make sense in the end," she said.
"If we're shipping off our manufacturing and shipping off our resources to countries that use everything from child labour practices to cheap labour practices and don't protect their workers, that cost is going to going to come back to us in some sort of way. The fact that cheap goods ensures those folks continue to work under those conditions is not something we as Canadians need to be in support of."
Don Rusnak, Liberal
Liberal candidate Don Rusnak thinks the trade agenda of the Conservative government amounts to "selling the farm" in what he called a "race to the bottom." He not only criticized Harper's approach to oil as the central economic focus but condemned the Prime Minister's character when it came to inter-governmental relations.
"We have a crumbling manufacturing economy in most of this province and it's mostly to do with Harper's policies.
"He has let the manufacturing slide in this province because of his differences with our current government and governments need to work together. If they're not working together, nothing good is going to happen for the people in this country," he said.
"I think infrastructure in terms of government spending will help companies invest further in their businesses. We have a manufacturing sector in this province that has suffered because of the global recession but it's also suffering because of Harper's policies. If we provide more advantages to manufacturers in this province and in this country, I think it will go a long way to helping spur more manufacturing and good-paying jobs in this county."
