NDP drawing support from other parties: Kinew

Premier Wab Kinew is eager to point out that the NDP’s candidate in Spruce Woods is drawing support from the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives leading up to the Aug. 26 byelection.

Kinew and NDP candidate Ray Berthelette hosted a press conference Friday, which was billed as “PCs and Liberals in Spruce Woods lending their vote to Ray and the NDP” in a media release.

It featured a former Liberal candidate for the riding and a Progressive Conservative party member saying they support Berthelette in the campaign.

“We’re obviously a governing party here in Manitoba, but we also know that we share a lot of values with people who voted Liberal over the years,” Kinew said. “We share a lot of values with people who are maybe (Progressive) Conservative supporters, but are maybe in the more centre-right part of the political spectrum.”

The party event was at the Spruce Woods Housing Co-op on Brandon’s North Hill, which the NDP announced $500,000 in funding for last month.

“What I’ve noticed about people in Manitoba is that it’s usually the people who come first, the communities who come first. It’s less so about the colour of the party you support.”

Michelle Budiwski, who ran for the Liberals in Spruce Woods in 2023, said her values haven’t changed in the last two years, and she hasn’t switched parties, but she believes in the NDP and its candidate.

“Ray and this party are fulfilling the promises that they made during that (2023) campaign,” she said in the press conference. “They’re working for our families and they’re working for our communities.”

She said the PCs didn’t do anything for the riding while it was in power from 2016 to 2023.

“This riding always has elected a conservative MLA, and yet this housing co-op, our communities, our health care, were being ignored,” Budiwski said.

“(The NDP) have done more in less than two years than I have seen a majority (Progressive) Conservative government do in all of seven — and we had a (Progressive) Conservative MLA.”

Kinew said the NDP has a great candidate and a great team, and will continue to put in effort in ridings across the province going forward.

“I’m hoping that we have a strong showing, realistically, there’s some communities we visited here that the NDP hasn’t campaigned in for a generation,” the NDP premier said.

“There’s rural ridings in so many other parts of the province that we’re going to be putting that best foot forward into. I think Spruce Woods is a chance for us to show this part of the province what we believe … we’re one province.”

Kinew said he hopes that translates into province-wide support.

“I want to win 57 ridings,” he said. “I’d love to represent every single seat in the province.”

Ted Dzogan is a PC party member who said he believes in Berthelette’s ability as an MLA.

“I came to see Ray as living the very same values and care for the community that I hold dear,” Dzogan said at the podium behind the co-op building. “Yes, we do have some differences of opinion, but they are small compared to what we share. I believe Ray is an excellent human being, an excellent candidate, and will make an excellent MLA.”

He urged voters to talk and meet with all candidates ahead of every election, and not to just vote based on what the party candidates represent.

“I do encourage every voter to meet every candidate and form your own opinion on who you like best. That’s what makes for a healthy democracy and a healthy community.”

“Ray and I share many of the same values, even if we hold memberships in different political parties. That’s not strange. That’s healthy.”

Berthelette, who was also acting as emcee for the event, said it’s exciting to see how many more NDP voters there are this year.

“It’s exciting to see the number of first time NDP voters in Spruce Woods this time around, I think people are seeing that Wab Kinew’s government is treating rural Manitoba the way we deserve it to be treated.”

Last election, the NDP only spent $168 in campaign expenses in the riding, compared to $13,313 from the PCs and $6,413 from the Liberals. The NDP received 24 per cent of the vote that election, compared to more than 61 per cent the PCs got.

PC candidate Colleen Robbins said hosting a press conference on this topic is “silly” and “childish.”

“I’m surprised that you would make a news (conference) on it,” she said. “That to me is just hilarious.”

She spoke with a former NDP voter yesterday who said she will now be voting for the PCs in this byelection, Robbins said.

“That happens all the time. It doesn’t matter who you are and what party you belong to.”

Liberal candidate Stephen Reid said this shows they are worried about him taking NDP votes and turning them into Liberal ones.

“One thing that’s happening, I think, is they’re seeing the momentum I’m getting, and I’m stealing votes from them, and they’re a little nervous,” Reid said.

Advanced voting opens today, and election day is Aug. 26.

» alambert@brandonsun.com