Northern Ontario's punk rock politician

City and Nuuchimii

Today we're joined by none other than the Honourable Charlie Angus, longtime Canadian Member of Parliament for the enormous federal riding of Timmins-James Bay in Northern Ontario. Charlie - who some call the Canadian Bernie Sanders - is a diehard New Democrat. For those who don't know, the New Democratic Party is essentially the Canadian labour party; built thanks to organized labour and unionized working class workers and plenty of democratic socialists. It's the party that's led today by Jagmeet Singh, but was previously led by the late Ed Broadbent, the late Jack Layton, and none other than the father of Canadian Medicare: the late Tommy Douglas. Charlie Angus' riding is unique in that it is very Indigenous, very vast and resource rich, very working class, and was once dominated by little coal mining towns like the one Charlie comes from, Cobalt. After twenty years of aggressive impassioned face offs with The Man in Ottawa, this rugged reformed anarchist turned democratic socialist is laying the groundwork for his exit… stage left. Our thanks to Charlie Angus for sharing his fascinating story with us.