Jackson wins Spruce Woods for Tories

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This article was published 04/10/2023 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Grant Jackson is stepping into the role of MLA for Spruce Woods, beating out Liberal Michelle Budiwski and New Democrat Melissa Ghidoni on Tuesday night.

As of 10 p.m., with 18 of 37 polls reporting, Jackson was declared winner of the riding, which includes the northern tip of Brandon as well as a dozen Westman communities. Last December, then-Progressive Conservative representative Cliff Cullen announced that he would not be seeking re-election. Cullen had served as the MLA for Spruce Woods since its creation in 2008 through the redistribution of the Turtle Mountain and Minnedosa electoral districts.

“I’m really humbled to have gained this level of support from my hometown of Souris and all these other communities in Spruce Woods, which I grew up in,” Jackson told the Sun following his win.

“It’s just incredibly humbling that people believed in me and our Progressive Conservative team and our vision for a better future.”

Jackson is a government employee who won the official PC nomination during a candidacy election in February.

At 26 years of age, he has been involved with federal and provincial politics for more than 10 years, working for Cullen, Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire and Tory Leader Heather Stefanson.

During his time going door-to-door on the campaign trail, Jackson heard a lot about health care, especially in the rural areas surrounding Brandon, where emergency rooms have been shuttered due to staffing shortages. One of Jackson’s promises was to use his knowledge of the political system to guarantee more funding and resources for the region for health care, education and other hot topic issues.

Even though his government fell on Tuesday night, Jackson said he will be an advocate for the people of Spruce Woods and all of Brandon and western Manitoba.

“That’s how I view the role, and how I discussed it right from day one of putting my name forward,” he said.

Going essentially head-to-head against Jackson was Michelle Budiwski, who declared that she’d be running for the Spruce Woods candidacy in June. Budiwski is an entrepreneur who has run several businesses in the region, including Chrysalis Publications, Escape: The Final Countdown, and Muck Off!: A Cleaning Company. She has also served as the proprietor of a multi-platform information network known as Real Westman.

Budiwski, who is a longtime Rivers resident, built her campaign on her experiences as a parent, business owner, homeowner and educator.

Spruce Woods has been Tory blue since it was first contested in 2011, and under its previous moniker of Turtle Mountain had been Conservative since 1981. Facing a tough battle, Budiwski previously told the Sun that voters were ready for a change, especially after the last seven years of living under a Conservative-majority government.

Budiwski critiqued the provincial government on health care, infrastructure and a lack of progress during her campaign — sentiments which were echoed by Ghidoni, who claimed that much of Manitoba’s crime-related issues boil down to a lack of adequate mental health services and affordable housing.

Ghidoni currently works as an administrative professional and previously served as a member of the Red River College Students’ Association, where she advocated on behalf of post-secondary students to all levels of government. She has also sat on national boards like the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, which provided her with an understanding of governance that will hopefully translate to this provincial seat in Westman, she told the Sun earlier this week.

However, Ghidoni has been largely missing from the campaign trail, declining to speak to the Sun for an interview and failing to show up for the official Spruce Woods candidates debate that took place on Sept. 20 in Brandon. Despite this, Ghidoni was actively leading Budiwski in the polls by 695 votes as of 10:45 p.m.

Despite the fact that she didn’t win, and even trailed Ghidoni in the polls, Budiwski said she was proud of what her campaign meant for the people of the Spruce Woods riding, and for people throughout Westman.

“I think for the first time ever, Westman saw a fight, and the Conservative candidates have had to actually work for it. They went into this election expecting it to be like all the other elections,” she said.

Though she expected a Tory win in the constituency, Budiwski nevertheless felt like she achieved her goal during her campaign, which was to be a voice for people who are under-represented.

“I wanted to make sure that people who felt like they didn’t have a voice had someone speaking up for them, so that maybe next time, they would feel a little safer in standing up and speaking for themselves,” she said.

Budiwski believes she trailed Ghidoni in the polls due to what she called “strategic voting,” where people who didn’t want to see a PC candidate get in voted instead for the NDP, despite Ghidoni’s less than robust campaigning.

“People were really scared about the PCs getting in, so they voted NDP without actually looking at their candidates, and we’ve seen that all across the province … which is another reason why we need electoral reform, so that individual ridings and individual candidates actually have a voice for their people,” she said.

Jackson watched the election results come in with his supporters in his hometown of Souris in the King Edward Room at the Souris Hotel after spending the day knocking on doors and making phone calls, encouraging his constituents to vote.

“Whatever happens later, as the evening progresses, I’m certainly very committed to advocating on behalf of Brandon and the region, and I think having both rural and urban areas in my constituency seat [makes it] particularly well poised to try and grow the region together.”

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