Nominees confirmed for provincial election

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This article was published 13/09/2023 (932 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the nomination deadline for candidates in next month’s provincial deadline having passed at Monday at 1 p.m., the election picture across Manitoba has solidified.

Elections Manitoba announced Tuesday that 189 candidates are running across Manitoba’s 57 constituencies. Both the Manitoba NDP and the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba have candidates in all constituencies.

Four incumbent Progressive Conservative MLAs are not running for re-election in Westman: Eileen Clarke (Agassiz), Brad Michaleski (Dauphin), Reg Helwer (Brandon West) and Cliff Cullen (Spruce Woods).

The Manitoba Liberals did not manage to appoint a full slate of candidates, ending the nomination period with 49 nominees.

Three constituencies in Westman do not have a Liberal candidate: Brandon West, Dauphin and Swan River.

In a statement, Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the party had a few candidates’ applications fall through at the last minute.

“While I regret that not every Manitoban will have a Manitoba Liberal candidate to vote for, at the end of the day, our focus has been on fielding very strong candidates in constituencies where we have a strong chance of winning, of which we have many,” Lamont’s statement reads.

“This is an incredibly strong slate of candidates who can contend and win at the constituency level.”

The Communist Party of Canada – Manitoba is running five candidates (none in Westman), the Green Party of Manitoba 13 candidates (one in Westman) and the new Keystone Party five candidates (two in Westman). Three independent candidates are also running in Manitoba, but none are in Westman.

The Manitoba Party did not nominate any candidates. By law, Elections Manitoba must deregister a party if they fail to nominate at least five candidates in a general election.

By phone, Brandon University political science professor Kelly Saunders said it’s unfortunate for both the Liberals and voters that the party wasn’t able to nominate a candidate in every constituency, since more viable options are healthy for democracy.

“We know they’ve really been besieged in the last couple of years and this has been a perennial factor for them not just recently but really for the last couple of years,” she said. “They’ve really struggled with finding volunteers, with finding supports and probably most importantly, finding donations.”

She said it has been harder overall to find candidates to run in elections because of the time commitments involved as well as candidates becoming targets for trolls on social media.

With the current affordability crisis, some potential candidates just don’t have time to run because they’re already working a couple of jobs and taking care of their families.

Overall, Saunders said this campaign is reminding her of the 1999 election, when Gary Doer and the NDP defeated the Tories to form government for the first time in 11 years. She said she wasn’t sure if there would be an orange wave carrying the NDP to victory this time around, but that there is an air of uncertainty, especially in Winnipeg.

In Brandon, Saunders predicts Brandon East will be the race to watch. Though the incumbent, Tory Len Isleifson, is running for re-election, it has been a stronghold for the NDP in the past, has a good candidate in Glen Simard running for the party and NDP Leader Wab Kinew has made multiple appearances in the constituency so far.

“It’s one the NDP see as winnable for them,” Saunders said.

In alphabetical order by constituency, and then in alphabetical order by last name within a constituency, here is a list of who will be on the ballot on Oct. 3:

Agassiz

• Jodie Byram (Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba)

• Richard Davies (Manitoba Liberal Party)

• Danica Wiggins (Manitoba NDP)

• Mark Wilson (Keystone Party of Manitoba)

Brandon East

• Len Isleifson (PC, incumbent)

• Glen Simard (NDP)

• Trenton Zazalak (Liberal)

Brandon West

• Wayne Balcaen (PC)

• Bill Marsh (Green Party of Manitoba)

• Quentin Robinson (NDP)

Dauphin

• Ron Kostyshyn (NDP)

• Gord Wood (PC)

Riding Mountain

• Wayne Chacun (NDP)

• Greg Nesbitt (PC, incumbent)

• Eileen Smerchanski (Liberal)

Spruce Woods

• Michelle Budiwski (Liberal)

• Melissa Ghidoni (NDP)

• Grant Jackson (PC)

Swan River

• Andy Maxwell (NDP)

• Don McKenna (Keystone)

• Rick Wowchuk (PC, incumbent)

Turtle Mountain

• Lorna Canada-Vanegas Mesa (NDP)

• Kevin Friesen (Keystone)

• Doyle Piwniuk (PC, incumbent)

• Ali Tarar (Liberal)

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