The Northern Ontario Party leader was to the point during an interview Monday evening at a meeting to firm up riding association plans.
Said Holliday: "I will be the candidate. If there is someone else who thinks they can take the seat for the MPP of Nipissing, then, by all means, they can put their name forward. Any smart leader in any situation would always put their best foot forward. I'll back anybody that we feel can win.
"I will put my name in. It's up to the members. Tonight we will go over what we need to do, what the next steps are to be a registered riding association. Some people don't realize the long steps and processes, but we've been doing this for 10 months, and to be where we are it's just unbelievable."
Holliday is pleased with the progress the party has made so far. "It's unbelievable the steps we've made in such a short time. We've done what a lot of parties couldn't do in 39 years. We are like the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
"Up until June of last year, the party was back and forth, they took too long to do stuff[...]Where before it took too long to get things done, now our membership has the policies before them to vote on, we're not just a party that puts these things forward and says 'this is what we're doing.'"
Holliday points to his unique accessibility as a party leader as a drawing point to attract new members. He has committed to meeting with groups of all sizes to spread the Northern Ontario Party word.
"When I did my northern tour, I was invited to two farms, and some people's houses and some businesses. I'm a people person. If it means meeting with someone in their home, I'll do it. This shows what type of party we are. We're real working people. It's the only way that things should be."
To combat trends in the past, where the party has had ridings without a viable candidate or sparse participation between elections, Holliday suggested that, "We're bringing on the people that want to do the work and not just every four years, show up at the last minute to help. This shows by the number of people coming out, that it's growing."
Holliday says that three things his party stands for are "working people, Northern Ontario in the present and for future generations, and getting to the point where we can be our own province. We want to show them how we are going to be our own province."
In a recent visit to North Bay, Premier Kathleen Wynne gave BayToday her take on the separation movement.
Where the Donald Trump approach to politics had a draw early on for Holliday, he has since distanced himself from this style. "Making Norther Ontario stronger than ever," has become a motto for Holliday, a decidedly less Trump-ian slogan than "Make Northern Ontario great again."