Not born there but at first traveled and then lived in North Bay for couple of years, I loved warm people who lived there, very helpful and open minded.
I have family in sturgeon falls.. every I drive through north bay i always hit the red lights. Then there is fannys..
I just missed the summer festival last year, seems like it is pretty big. I'm only a few minutes walk from the waterfront stage, so I'm looking forward to it.
http://www.cityofnorthbay.ca/visiting/seeanddo/attractions/ check out the eaves of that mini train building mid summer...and the ceiling of the nearby underpass walkway..youll see an amazing amount of spiders usually
always a way station for me enroute west or east but stayed in stureon falls a couple of times (and Blind River)