Bergen opens Brandon PC office

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This article was published 06/09/2023 (940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hours after their leader officially launched Manitoba’s provincial election campaign, Brandon’s three Progressive Conservative candidates unveiled their campaign headquarters with a special guest on Tuesday.

Joining Spruce Woods candidate Grant Jackson, Brandon West candidate Wayne Balcaen and Brandon East candidate Len Isleifson at 382 Park Ave. East was former federal Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen, who is serving as the PC campaign co-chair.

She warned those in attendance that she has seen the damage an incompetent leader can wreak in working across the aisle from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and she sees Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew in a similar light.

“I do not want the same thing to happen in Manitoba,” Bergen said to the crowd of approximately 90 people. “And I see Wab Kinew and his friend Jagmeet Singh supporting Justin Trudeau. They are three peas in a pod.”

Should Kinew become premier, Bergen said he would support the federal carbon tax, increase sales and income taxes and drive businesses away. She said that Kinew’s past, which include convictions for assault and impaired driving — which he has since been pardoned for — trouble her.

By comparison, Bergen cast Tory Leader Heather Stefanson as a “thoughtful, graceful, confident leader” who would keep Manitoba on a positive trajectory.

In an interview with the Sun, Bergen said she supports Stefanson’s opposition to the carbon tax, which she said has only penalized hardworking Canadians and Manitobans and does nothing to help the environment.

Earlier this year, the NDP released a short audio clip of a speech Bergen gave to a group of young Tory supporters where she said many young people are engaged and entitled, among other things.

On Tuesday, she said what the Progressive Conservatives should do to engage young voters is talk about the problems they’re facing, especially affordability.

“Young people are smart, they want to be engaged,” she said. “And I believe that when you give them that opportunity — and we’ve seen it on so many of our campaigns, young people come in and join our party.”

Earlier this summer, Stefanson promised that if re-elected, her party would update the Public Schools Act to add more parental rights, including the right to be informed about curriculum, about bullying, about presentations made by people from outside the school system and the right to consent before a child’s image is made, shared or stored.

The NDP’s response to the promise was to level an accusation that it was a dog whistle against LGBTQ+ people, especially as multiple school divisions, including Brandon’s, have been embroiled in arguments about whether to ban queer content from school libraries.

Bergen said she was “disappointed” by the response from groups like the NDP and that as a mother and grandmother, she doesn’t know anyone who would say parents shouldn’t know what’s going on in their children’s lives.

Speaking on behalf of the three Brandon candidates, Isleifson told assembled guests that before he entered provincial politics in 2016, he spent 21 years working in the health-care system and saw proof the NDP should not be entrusted with power again.

“During the dark days of the NDP, those 17 years, we had the longest wait times in our hospitals in Canada, we had the largest group of hallway medicine,” Isleifson said. “They thought they fixed that and created highway medicine. We’re hearing at the doors that health care is the number-one concern right now.”

Isleifson said that if the NDP were to form government, he would “guarantee” they would find a way to stop the millions of dollars worth of upgrades his party has promised for the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

His fellow candidates told the Sun that health care was also the highest priority they’d heard while door-knocking in their respective constituencies, as well as crime and affordability.

After spending more than three decades as a police officer and police chief in Brandon, Balcaen is trying to succeed outgoing MLA Reg Helwer as the Tory representative in Brandon West.

He said his transition to politics has gone smoothly so far because of his past experience working with government.

“They understand that I’m here to serve and that I will work with the community,” Balcaen said. “But, you know, they also know that I’m working very hard to learn all of the other parts of government that I haven’t had that much time to focus on.”

Jackson, who has previously worked in the premier’s office and as an assistant for Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire, is trying to succeed outgoing PC MLA and Deputy Premier Cliff Cullen.

“Obviously as a first-time candidate, there’s some nerves in amongst that,” Jackson said. “But the feedback that I’m hearing at the doors has been very positive so far. Certainly want to get to all of the doors on the North Hill and as many in the other smaller towns that we have here.”

Going forward, the PC office in Brandon will be open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Sundays.

Potential voters wanting to reach the campaigns can email Balcaen at wayneforbrandonwest@gmail.com, Isleifson at brandoneastpc@outlook.com and Jackson at votegrantjackson@gmail.com. Each candidate also has a Facebook page for their campaigns.

With the writ officially dropped, here’s a look at the rest of Brandon’s candidates according to Elections Manitoba’s website.

Spruce Woods contains all parts of Brandon north of the Assiniboine River as well as the RMs of Cornwallis, Elton, Glenboro-South Cypress, Oakland-Wawanesa, Riverdale, Sifton, Souris-Glenwood, Victoria and Whitehead.

Brandon West and Brandon East divide up the rest of the city, sharing a border along 18th Street south of the river.

Trying to unseat two-term incumbent Isleifson in Brandon East is local teacher Glen Simard for the Manitoba NDP and Assiniboine Community College instructor Trenton Zazalak for the Manitoba Liberals.

Brandon East has historically been an NDP stronghold before Isleifson’s breakthrough, represented by NDP MLAs Len Evans (1969-1999) and Drew Caldwell (1999-2016).

Former Brandon Police Service Chief Balcaen will be up against retired United Church minister Quentin Robinson, running for the NDP, and retired principal Bill Marsh, running for the Green Party of Manitoba.

No Liberal candidate has been nominated for Brandon West yet, according to both Elections Manitoba and the party’s own website.

Brandon West has been most frequently painted Tory blue since it was created in 1966, with 1981-85 under Henry Carroll (NDP and independent) and 1999-2007 under Scott Smith (NDP) as the only interruptions. Helwer had represented the constituency since 2011.

In Brandon’s northern-most constituency, Spruce Woods, Jackson is being opposed by local entrepreneur Michelle Budiwski for the Liberals and Melissa Ghidoni for the NDP.

It will be just the second election contested where Spruce Woods has incorporated part of the City of Brandon. Cullen had represented the constituency since it was created in 2011.

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