New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair is pulling out all the stops to make Northwestern Ontario as orange as possible.

The federal political leader made a stop in Thunder Bay on Sunday as part of his pre-election campaign tour of the province. Mulcair was greeted with a standing ovation filled with cheers and orange NDP signs waving frantically as he went up to the podium to address the crowd of around 100 people.

Mulcair was joined by Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty and federal election candidates Andrew Foulds for Thunder Bay-Superior North, and Howard Hampton for Kenora.

Mulcair repeated a number of key promises including raising the minimum wage to $15, lowering the retirement age back to 65 and keeping door-to-door mail delivery.

Not everyone in the audience was carrying orange signs.

Both Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer, who left the NDP to join the Green party, and Liberal candidate Patty Hajdu were both in attendance.

Following the speeches, Mulcair took some time to speak to local media where he said the North is a key priority for him.

“The NDP has always done well in the North and we have every intention of getting Andrew elected,” he said.

“Of course Howard Hampton is so well known across the Kenora riding. He’s getting a great reaction. We understand that development of the North is key to Canada’s economic future. We also understand that it has to be done harmoniously and sustainable.”

Last month the Northern Policy Institute put out a report calling on FedNor to be separate from Industry Canada and to become a stand-alone agency.

Mulcair explained he would look to the three Northwestern Ontario candidates for advise on the issue.

“It’s not how you put the structure together as much but whether the money is there,” he said.

“The local communities decide and you make it flow. What’s happened with the Conservatives time and again is that they have announced things, they pretend that there’s money there and it never actually went into the communities. That’s why we’re talking about today, for example, is transferring one cent of the existing gas tax to here in the North. Infrastructure takes a beating and you have to have the resources to maintain the roads.”

Mulcair explained there needs to be a respectful nation-to-nation approach when dealing with First Nations.

Mulcair criticized the Conservative government on handling big projects like the Ring of Fire development because they don’t know how to get along with First Nation communities and how to consult with local communities.

He said First Nation titles, treaties and the nation-to-nation approach have to be respected.

Last month also saw the release of the long-awaited Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s report on residential schools. At the time of the release, Muclair said they would consult with First Nations to determine which of the 94 recommendations were the most pressing.

On Sunday, Mulcair said they will look at those recommendations as well as ones that were left to collect dust. He said they would make it a priority to move the recommendations forward.

Mulcair also said he’s concerned about the price of energy in the North.

“I know a lot of people are having a heck of a time heating their own homes,” he said.

“We were talking to someone today who told us they were spending up to a thousand dollars a month to heat their little home. That’s absolutely unaffordable for a number of people. Unfortunately, the public ownership is being lost here in Ontario. I understand that’s up to the provincial government to decide that but it is interesting that one province to the west in Manitoba and one province to the east in Quebec that those are public utilities, public ownership of a public utility, which means lower prices. There’s a lot to be said for allowing things that are that essential to stay in public hands.”

He added on the energy east pipeline project that Canada doesn’t have a good enough environmental assessment process for the project to move forward.

He also clarified that the long-gun registry wouldn’t be coming back.

“It was a failure,” he added. “We will make sure the police have the tools to do their jobs.”