Thunder Bay—Rainy River

Thunder Bay—Rainy River is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. It first elected a member in the 2004 federal election.

Thunder Bay—Rainy River

Ontario electoral district
From the 2015 federal election to 2025 From the 2025 federal election Interactive map of riding boundaries. Point indicates the city of Thunder Bay.
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
MP	Marcus Powlowski Liberal
District created	2003
First contested	2004
Last contested	2021
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2011)[1]	82,984
Electors (2015)	62,207
Area (km²)[1]	39,545
Pop. density (per km²)	2.1
Census division(s)	Thunder Bay District, Rainy River District
Census subdivision(s)	Thunder Bay (part), Fort Frances, Oliver Paipoonge, Atikokan, Neebing, Emo, Fort William, Alberton, Conmee, La Vallee

History

It was created in 2003 from parts of Kenora—Rainy River and Thunder Bay—Atikokan ridings.

This riding gained a fraction of territory from Thunder Bay—Superior North during the 2012 electoral redistribution.

Geography

It consists of the Territorial District of Rainy River, and the part of the Territorial District of Thunder Bay lying south and west of a line drawn from the western limit of the territorial district east along the 6th Base Line, south along longitude 90^o00 W, Dog River and the western shoreline of Dog Lake, west along the northern boundary of the Township of Fowler, south along its western boundary, and east along its southern boundary, south along the Kaministiquia River, east along the northern limit of the Township of Oliver Paipoonge, south along its eastern limit and along Pole Line Road, north along Thunder Bay Expressway (Highways 11 and 17), east along Harbour Expressway and Main Street to 110th Avenue, and due east to the eastern limit of the City of Thunder Bay, along that limit to the northeast corner of the Township of Neebing, and southeast to the US border.

Demographics

According to the 2021 Canadian census^[2]

Ethnic groups: 76.4% White, 18.8% Indigenous, 1.5% South Asian

Languages: 89.4% English, 1.6% French, 1.1% Italian

Religions: 54.1% Christian (26.2% Catholic, 5.9% United Church, 4.7% Anglican, 3.2% Lutheran, 1.6% Baptist, 1.5% Presbyterian, 11.0% other), 1.8% Indigenous spirituality, 42.0% none

Median income: $42,800 (2020)

Average income: $50,520 (2020)

Riding associations

Riding associations are the local branches of political parties:

Party		Association name	President	HQ city
	Conservative	Thunder Bay--Rainy River Conservative Association	Linda R. Rydholm	Thunder Bay
	Liberal	Thunder Bay--Rainy River Federal Liberal Association	Stephen Margarit	Thunder Bay
	New Democratic	Thunder Bay--Rainy River Federal NDP Riding Association	Yuk-Sem Won	Thunder Bay
	People's	Thunder Bay PPC Regional District Association	James Berday	Nipigon

Member of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of Parliament:

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Thunder Bay—Rainy River Riding created from Kenora—Rainy River and Thunder Bay—Atikokan
38th	2004–2006		Ken Boshcoff	Liberal
39th	2006–2008
40th	2008–2011		John Rafferty	New Democratic
41st	2011–2015
42nd	2015–2019		Don Rusnak	Liberal
43rd	2019–2021		Marcus Powlowski
44th	2021–2025
45th	2025–present

Election results

Graph of election results in Thunder Bay—Rainy River (minor parties that never got 2% of the vote or didn't run consistently are omitted)

v t e 2025 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marcus Powlowski	21,125	48.5	+14.2
	Conservative	Brendan Hyatt	18,685	42.9	+13.6
	New Democratic	Yuk-Sem Won	2,954	6.8	–21.7
	People's	Sabrina Ree	433	1.0	–5.6
	Green	Eric Arner	334	0.8	–0.6
Total valid votes/expense limit
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			43,531	66.5
Eligible voters			65,412
	Liberal hold		Swing
Source: Elections Canada[3][4] [5]}}

2021 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marcus Powlowski	13,655	34.3	-1.0	$85,082.79
	Conservative	Adelina Pecchia	11,671	29.3	0.0	$27,004.63
	New Democratic	Yuk-Sem Won	11,342	28.5	-0.6	$82,351.30
	People's	Alan Aubut	2,621	6.6	+4.8	$0.00
	Green	Tracey MacKinnon	571	1.4	-3.1	$287.74
Total valid votes			39,860
Total rejected ballots			308
Turnout			40,168	61.69
Eligible voters			65,109
Source: Elections Canada[6]

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marcus Powlowski	14,498	35.32	-8.70	$55,609.36
	Conservative	Linda Rydholm	12,039	29.33	+8.24	$50,919.61
	New Democratic	Yuk-Sem Won	11,944	29.10	-0.57	none listed
	Green	Amanda Moddejonge	1,829	4.46	-0.77	none listed
	People's	Andrew Hartnell	741	1.81	–	none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			41,051	99.20
Total rejected ballots			333	0.80	+0.39
Turnout			41,384	62.41	-3.92
Eligible voters			66,306
	Liberal hold		Swing		-8.47
Source: Elections Canada[7][8]

2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Don Rusnak	18,523	44.02	+22.31	$69,724.11
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	12,483	29.66	-18.99	$106,616.41
	Conservative	Moe Comuzzi	8,876	21.09	-6.12	$64,890.91
	Green	Christy Radbourne	2,201	5.23	+2.79	$3,586.52
Total valid votes/expense limit			42,083	99.58		$233,739.33
Total rejected ballots			176	0.42	–
Turnout			42,259	66.33
Eligible voters			63,708
	Liberal gain from New Democratic		Swing		+20.65
Source: Elections Canada[9][10]

2011 federal election redistributed results[11]
Party		Vote	%
	New Democratic	18,126	48.65
	Conservative	10,138	27.21
	Liberal	8,085	21.70
	Green	911	2.44
	Others	1	0.00

2011 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	18,085	48.7	+8.4	–
	Conservative	Maureen Comuzzi-Stehmann	10,097	27.2	+3.6	–
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	8,067	21.7	-10.6	–
	Green	Ed Shields	909	2.4	-1.4	–
Total valid votes/expense limit			37,158	100.0
Total rejected ballots			130	0.3	–
Turnout			37,288	60.1	–
Eligible voters			62,018	–	–
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+2.4

2008 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	14,478	40.3	+6.9	$80,937
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	11,589	32.3	-2.8	$63,482
	Conservative	Richard Neumann	8,466	23.6	-3.6	$44,136
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,377	3.8	+0.7	$1,292
Total valid votes/expense limit			35,910	100.0		$93,852
Total rejected ballots			105
Turnout			36,015	57.05
Eligible voters			63,128
	New Democratic gain from Liberal		Swing		+4.85
Source: Elections Canada [12]

2006 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	13,520	35.1	-4.3
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	12,862	33.4	+3.7
	Conservative	David Leskowski	10,485	27.2	+0.9
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,193	3.1	+0.7
	Marijuana	Doug MacKay	424	1.1	-0.4
Total valid votes			38,484	100.0
Total rejected ballots			134
Turnout			36,618	57.96
Eligible voters			63,180
	Liberal hold		Swing		-4.00
Source: Elections Canada [13]

2004 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	14,290	39.4
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	10,781	29.7
	Conservative	David Leskowski	9,559	26.3
	Green	Russ Aegard	856	2.4
	Marijuana	Doug Thompson	547	1.5
	Christian Heritage	Johannes Scheibler	267	0.7
Total valid votes			36,300	100.0
Total rejected ballots			162
Turnout			36,462	57.22
Eligible voters			63,718
Source: Elections Canada [14]

See also

• List of Canadian electoral districts
• Historical federal electoral districts of Canada