5 candidates want to be Thunder Bay's mayor. Here are their cases for why they deserve your vote

With less than a week to go before Ontario's municipal election, CBC Thunder Bay has interviewed all five candidates for mayor to hear their plans for the city and where they stand on the major issues. 

We've allowed the candidates space to share their key platform points, have asked them questions on social issues and the role of city council in solving them, and also used questions you've sent in to us over the course of the campaign. 

Scroll through to listen to the interviews between each candidate and Mary-Jean Cormier, the host of Superior Morning. 

You can also click on the links below to read our earlier coverage of the mayor's race. 

Ken Boshcoff is a veteran politician in Thunder Bay who has served seven terms of city council — including two as mayor from 1997 to 2003. He's also served two terms as an MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River. 

So far in this municipal campaign, he's touted that experience and has emphasized his track record in working with community organizations and boards. 

"It's experience, and the fact that I have leadership skills that have been honed over the years over many organizations at many high levels dealing with sometimes difficult people and achieving considerable successes," he said. 

On addressing ongoing social issues such as homelessness, Boschoff says that if elected, he'll try to get spending commitments from federal and provincial governments, since Thunder Bay hosts so many people from outlying and remote communities in northwestern Ontario.

"We're handling a territory larger than most countries, and to ask one city of just over 100,000 to handle all those problems from innumerable municipalities and First Nations is simply unfair," he said. 

Clint Harris is a former publisher of the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal newspaper, and is highligiting his business experience and community involvement as a candidate. 

"It's a big job, a big corporation," he said. "What I've learned is there's one person qualified for the job, two that are re-applying, didn't get the job done, so it's time for somebody to go in with some successes and some leadership and the skills required to run such a large corporation."

He's also called for more action from the provincial and federal governments to pay for helping Thunder Bay deal with ongoing socio-economic crises facing the city such as homelessness, gang activity and human trafficking. 

He says he sees these issues in economic terms — that solving social issues is good for the city's bottom line — and also on compassionate grounds. 

"It's time to be compassionate," he said, "and at the same time, get to the point where we can actually have a lot of savings, and the resources like police, EMS and fire can actually do the job they're supposed to be doing."