An occupational health and safety consultant, first with the city and later with Vale's operations in the Sudbury area,[1] Matichuk was virtually unknown before launching her mayoral campaign in September 2010.

[2] However, she quickly gained attention with a focused campaign in which she issued a series of daily press releases attacking aspects of incumbent mayor John Rodriguez's record; by the time Oraclepoll Research released its poll of voter intentions in the mayoral campaign on October 12, Matichuk was in second place with 31.5 per cent support, behind Rodriguez but ahead of longtime city councillor Ted Callaghan.

[7] The paper noted her lack of political experience and the highly negative tone of her campaign — in an earlier editorial, in fact, the paper had named her alongside Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford as an example of an apparent Tea Party mentality entering into Ontario's municipal elections[8] — but argued that in public debates and other dealings with the city's media, she had shown herself to be a substantial and practical voice.

[16] She was, however, able to bring the Northern Ontario Film Studio (former mothballed arena) to Sudbury, as well as the Laurentian School of Architecture location downtown and relocation of the Farmer's Market.

[17] Despite the controversies that marred her first term in office, however, Oraclepoll Research's first poll of the race, released on June 24, 2014, suggested that she still held a healthy lead over any of the declared candidates among decided voters, with 38.1 per cent support.

[18] In the early months of the 2014 municipal election campaign, Matichuk's silence about her reelection plans became a provincewide story when Toronto Star journalist Robert Benzie reported on Twitter that sources within the Ontario Liberal Party were claiming that Premier Kathleen Wynne would appoint Matichuk as the party's candidate in the provincial electoral district of Sudbury for the 2014 provincial election.