Budiwski looks to run for Liberals in Spruce Woods

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This article was published 06/06/2023 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Westman entrepreneur Michelle Budiwski is seeking the Manitoba Liberal Party nomination for the constituency of Spruce Woods, having announced her intention to run for office over the weekend through social media.

If the Manitoba Liberals accept her candidacy later this week, and no one else emerges to challenge her, Budiwski will be going up against Progressive Conservative nominee Grant Jackson in the upcoming provincial election, which is scheduled to take place Oct. 3.

While Budiwski lacks Jackson’s experience in the realm of politics, she has been embedded in the comings and goings of the region through other channels.

Not only has Budiwski run several different businesses (Chrysalis Publications, Escape: The Final Countdown, Muck Off!: A Cleaning Company), but she has also worked as an instructor at Assiniboine Community College and served as the proprietor of the multi-platform information network known as Real Westman.

Because of this, Budiwski told the Sun on Monday that she’s very much aware of the issues currently facing rural communities in terms of access to health care, education and economic development.

“All of these issues … tend to get ignored outside of the city,” Budiwski said over the phone.

“And we really need an MLA who’s going to step up and fight for our communities and our families, who has the knowledge and experience of what those issues are and how people are affected in these communities.”

Budiwski, who was born in Thompson and grew up in The Pas, knows the importance of putting these support systems in place first-hand, having struggled with serious drug addiction that began in her youth and carried over into adulthood.

But after maintaining sobriety for over two decades now, Budiwski wants to use her life experience to help protect more vulnerable members of the Westman region, including senior citizens and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

In fact, Budiwski told the Sun that her decision to run for the Spruce Woods seat was largely spurred by the controversy surrounding a recent proposal to review and potentially ban books from the Brandon School Division that contained LGBTQ+ content.

Even though this proposal sparked widespread public backlash — and was outright rejected by the BSD’s board of trustees late last month — Budiwski remains disappointed that Westman’s MLAs in Brandon East (Len Isleifson), Brandon West (Reg Helwer) and Spruce Woods (Cliff Cullen) remained largely silent on this issue.

“Not one of the three stood up and spoke against the hate and the misinformation and the attacks on our 2SL[GBTQ] community, and that’s not OK,” she said.

To Budiwski, the PCs’ refusal to definitively stand on the right side of these social issues will backfire in the coming provincial election and allow for her and other outsider candidates to penetrate rural ridings like Spruce Woods, which have been solidly blue for a while.

“There are a lot of centrist people in these communities. That’s what I am. That’s what I believe in,” she said.

“Strong economic development while supporting our social programs and the people in our communities. You can have it both ways.”

This isn’t Budiwski’s first time running for office.

In the summer of 2019, she sought a nomination in the federal riding of Brandon-Souris, although the Liberal Party of Canada later rejected her bid.

While Budiwski never received an official reason for why she wasn’t given the green light, she theorizes that it had something to do with her “outspoken” nature, which might have been seen as a liability during such a critical federal election.

“I think they just erred on the side of caution,” she said. “They didn’t want anyone rocking the boat here in Manitoba. And I respect that. They had bigger campaign goals that I’m not privy to.”

However, Budiwski now believes that the arena of provincial politics is a much better fit for her values and advocacy, especially after consulting with Manitoba Liberal MLAs like Dr. Jon Gerrard.

“The Manitoba Liberal Party has a great platform,” she said.

“It is focused on long-term solutions, not just band-aids, addressing the issues that our communities are facing … and that’s what I’ve been advocating for forever.”

While a run in provincial politics will require some major changes in Budiwski’s life, including the closure of Real Westman, the Rivers resident is confident that this is the right move and totally in keeping with her community involvement over the last two decades.

“This isn’t something new that I just jumped in and said, ‘I want to get involved with these communities,’” she said.

“I’ve been doing this for a really long time, and now it’s time to actually take that step and make it official.”

The Manitoba NDP still hasn’t announced a candidate for Spruce Woods as of Monday afternoon.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson