Prior to launching the party, Deibel had been a business owner and a member of the North Bay City Council.

In its initial form, the party did not advocate separation, but campaigned for changes to the region's status and political power within the province.

[7] In October 1974, Deibel pitched a tent at Queen's Park, site of Ontario’s legislative assembly, for three days, and gave interviews to the media.

[7] In the spring of 1975, Deibel wrote to Premier Davis, offering to abandon the new province committee if the government met seven demands: The Ontario government responded to the offer, noting that "Northern Ontario... is strengthened by being an integral part of a very broadly based provincial economy."

Deibel replied with a demand for the Premier’s resignation, and on September 17, 1976, began to collect the 10,000 signatures necessary to register a new political party.

[10] Soon afterward, Deibel attempted to run for a nomination as a Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidate in the 1980 federal election.

[11] By 1985, however, the party was deregistered after failing to file its annual contributions and expenses return for 1984;[12] Don Joynt, the executive director of the provincial Commission on Election Contributions and Expenses, revealed that in its year-end return for 1983, the party had listed just ninety cents in assets and only four card-carrying members.

[14] Holliday, previously a bus driver for Ontario Northland, was converted to Northern Ontario separation when the government of Dalton McGuinty announced plans in 2012 to shut down the service,[15] and attracted media attention early in 2016 when he created an online petition on change.org which eventually attracted over 4,000 signatories.

[19] Poirier stepped down as leader a few months later, citing personal reasons, and Holliday reassumed the leadership on an interim basis.