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This article was published 14/10/2023 (820 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon East NDP MLA Elect Glen Simard stopped by The Brandon Sun office for a post-election interview with Sun editor Matt Goerzen. The following is a portion of that interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.

MG — I was kind of curious about what happened with the election this last week, as it seemed to not come off quite the way Elections Manitoba wanted.

GS — No. We were waiting for results. And Quinton (Robison) had to wait an extra two days. It was kind of frustrating to see that one poll remaining and that the gap had been so small. And likelihood of it being an advanced poll, which really could have really could have gone either way, especially with the number of votes that were cast prior to this election. I think we were looking at almost two and a half times more than the previous election. My team’s focus was on trying to get that in advance vote out as much as we could. I was a little disappointed looking at the turnout. Brandon East had an almost identical turnout. Our voters turned out, which I’m very happy about, obviously, but I think there’s some work to be done there.

MG — Would you agree with the idea that Brandon East was a kind of bellwether? I mean, it really kind of felt like it went along with changing government.

GS — I agree 100 per cent. However, at the same time, Brandon East is an urban seat, and even more urban than Brandon West in the sense that it has everything from the northern part of the riding all the way down to the southern part of the riding. We have a major police service, fire and ambulance, major hospital, ACC, we have homeless people, we have million dollar homes in the south end. So it’s a real urban seat. And sometimes we’re treated as rural because of our location, and I think fairly so. But the fact that we’re an urban seat. When polls we’re talking about Winnipeg, I tended to pay attention to those more than outside of Winnipeg just because of the makeup of our constituency. But absolutely a bellwether. It’s an island in a sea of blue.

MG — So you’ve been campaigning for I guess, almost two years, in a way?

GS — Yeah. Since March, I won the nomination, March 2022. OK, so that’s 18 months, but the nomination process? You know, I sent in my vetting papers in October 2021.

MG — Right. So you’ve been basically trying to campaign for this position for two years. The amount of work that it took to get there — do you think that paid off or was it something else?

GS — Oh, I think it’s a combination of both. One of the things I think that made Quinton successful is that his involvement in the community was not forced, it was organic. People knew who he was. He was respected in the community. And although maybe not a star candidate, he was able to tap into his community involvement. And I think I did some of that myself.

MG — From my position, it was looking more like a bit of an orange wave in the sense that it kind of floated all boats.

GS — Absolutely. I think the negative turn that their campaign took near the end of the election period was not a positive for them. I think it was building over time due to their unpopularity. I definitely heard that on the doorstep, but there’s some serious concerns over health care, over affordability and those two big major planks were in our campaign. Our commitment to talking about them on a daily basis resonated with voters, because we were putting that in front of voters as an alternative and trying to gain their trust with what we were saying. I think there was a lot of reasons why: my community roots, our platform, the unfavorables that the Conservatives had — all of those things kind of contributed to us being successful.

MG — Are you going to miss teaching?

GS — Oh, absolutely. It’s a it’s a rewarding career. I wouldn’t have stayed with it for as long as I had had I not had it not enjoyed it.

MG — How long has it been?

GS — Twenty-six years. I started teaching in 1997. And I’ll still be closely tied to the school I came from, because my wife is there. And I miss it. Especially these last five or six years being in the gym. You get to see all the kids and you get to know them really well from from the time they’re in kindergarten, and they’re crying over someone isn’t going to be their friend to Grade 8, where they’re just finding out who they are. You kind of develop that relationship.

MG — What are you looking forward to as you embark down a completely different road? What does it mean to you?

GS — Well, public service is always something that I’ve done daily. I’ve been involved for decades in the community in some capacity — whether it was applying for grants funding, organizing, baseball, hockey or working with the Brandon Teachers Association. I think those contributions were genuine and it was for improving the community. It’s very rewarding to have that feeling when you can bring people together and work positively for someone other than yourself. I’m not in this for me, in terms of the political piece. I’m in it for Brandon. I’m in it for what can we do for this city, and what can I do for this province now on a larger level. And that’s exciting.

MG — So what are your priorities? What do you think Brandon needs and what are we missing? What do you want to accomplish for Brandon?

GS — Well, right away, it’s it’s healthcare. It resonated with voters for a reason. Being able to improve families’ access to primary care physicians or family doctors is extremely important, especially with the aging population. And what I heard at the doorstep was that the care people received once they got it is world class. However, the inability to get that care in a timely fashion is also concerning to people, as is being able to do that preventative care, to go see your family doctor for that pain in your side or your sore leg, as it prevents you from maybe developing more serious injury and life changing events. Being able to try and address these issues through proactive measures, I think is important.

MG — So I would go back to the bricks and mortar argument the in your electoral district. The new facility that’s being constructed down at the Brandon hospital, as I recall, Len Isleifson said that if the NDP got in they would shut it all down.

GS — No.

MG — I don’t think that was ever really an option, especially not when it’s being built as we speak. That said, the question has always been how the heck do you find the staff to fill it? And I think that’s a fair question even now. I’ve heard promises on both sides that they’re going to do a better job of recruitment. However, I’ve heard similar talk for 18 years.

GS — And not just for Brandon, it’s across across the country, right?

MG — Exactly. So how is this government going to do any different than the last four years?

GS — Well, I know that our leader is committed to addressing this in a meaningful way. In his references to health care throughout the campaign, he said if the suits aren’t giving the scrubs what they need, then there needs to be some accountability there, including us as elected officials. So I think first of all, putting that accountability on the administrative piece to deliver is going to be a challenge that we will have to overcome. And I don’t think there’s anyone more wanting to deliver than the administrative bodies that oversee hospitals and clinics. But we also need to be responsive to what people on the ground are telling us what they need. I think it’s kind of a two term issue, to be honest. It’s not going to be fixed overnight. And the reality has to be kind of accepted by people who go into this.

MG — Let’s move on from healthcare. What are some of the other things that are on your radar for Brandon that need to be addressed?

GS — Well, affordability and…

MG — Well, affordability, we can say that’s a nebulous thing, because everyone has this on their radar across the province.

GS — Well, what it deals with is people’s precariousness between the street and their homes, and what it means to be paying your bills with your credit card with the inability to pay it all off at the end of the month. It’s seeing vulnerable populations in Brandon and being able to service them in a meaningful way. It means being able to return some confidence to the downtown area, because I think that’s a major piece of making Brandon more attractive to investment and growth. We have a major portion of the city that is just being abandoned and I don’t think that’s a good thing. There’s a void that I think we can work at trying to fill. But that starts first with addressing some of the needs that the people who live down here are dealing with.

MG — During the campaign, there was talk about the Park Community Centre, and trying to save that. What’s your commitment to it? Not just that one, but also to other community centres and help for the City of Brandon specifically.

GS — Park Community Centre is a really important one because it comes with the childcare spaces. And that demonstrates the need to be able to not just build a building, but build resources within that building to sustain the community that surrounds it. So what does that look like for downtown near New Era (School)? What does that look like for a new area being built on the south end of the city? Is it going to be just up to the developers to build those community centres that people within that co-op use, or is it going to be something for the city at large to be able to drop in on? The infrastructure needs to be addressed to be able to thrive as a community. When you have pools being dismantled, and we only have one outdoor pool, I mean you look at that in the city of 50,000 people and say really? Why are those facilities being torn down? And why is it so costly to maintain an ice surface for the city? I think Brandon’s growth, and Brandon’s changing demographics will necessitate a response from the community and support from the province in some way.

MG — The criticism has often been levelled that Brandon is always on the outside looking in. Winnipeg gets a heck of a lot of attention, and we’re not the only community to say that, right? Winnipeg is the capital, which should get attention. However, as the second largest city in the province, it often feels as if we don’t get the scale of attention we should. Over the last two years you’ve obviously built up some kind of rapport with the premier elect. How are you going to try and ensure that we’re not just ignored?

GS — Well, Wab realizes that Brandon’s a Westman hub. It has added importance for not just the city, but for the entire service area. He’s been here multiple times over the course of my candidacy and campaign. He knows the people who live in this community. He has a lot of strong connections to Brandon and in those actions, demonstrates a tie to the city and an elevated importance for it. Whether that translates into dollars and cents, I think that’ll be up to myself and to the other MLAs to make noise about and the city. Even the media coverage of Wab’s meetings on his first day, I think he met with the president of the (Association of Manitoba Municipalities), Scott Gillingham and the mayor of Brandon in that order, but the mayor Brandon wasn’t mentioned in the news coverage.

MG — No, he wasn’t. Not out of Winnipeg.

GS — However I did notice, there were mentions of the importance of Westman in terms of even future actions by this government. And we’ll see how how that plays out, but I am comforted by the fact that there was a shout out in the acceptance speech, where it wasn’t just about fortress Winnipeg.

MG — Is it more important to represent Brandon to the government and stand up for the local community or is it more important that Brandonites understand what their government is doing?

GS — I think, ultimately, you will be judged on the actions and what comes out of the government for Brandon and what championing the local MLAs do for the city. Can you point to something and say that a, b, c and d are a result of that. You can’t look at Brandon University’s funding that they received — or didn’t receive — in the last year and say, there’s a commitment to Brandon. And it took at the Chamber debate, for example, Wab understanding the Brandon issues and talking about the $3 million question, and committing to the completion of the Prairie Innovation Centre.

MG — But understanding those issues is different than actually acting upon them. So…

GS — What I’m saying is we will be judged on whether or not those those issues and those things are carried out.

MG — In Brandon West and in Spruce Woods, you’ve got two opposition MLAs. Both of them are going to be asking for things from Brandon. In a way, they are also like yourself, outside the Perimeter Highway and representing this city. How much do you expect to work with them?

GS — I think I expect to have a positive relationship. They’re elected to represent the people of Brandon, but also to oppose the government. I understand the difference between those two things, but at the same time we will be judged by our actions or inactions on the promises we made. We will hold ourselves to account in government, because I don’t think those were promises just to be elected. For me, I think it’s important in any relationship, whether it’s the one I have with with Grant (Jackson) or Wayne (Balcaen) or with my colleagues in caucus, that it’s through mutual respect, and that everyone’s trying to deliver for their constituents. That’s what it really boils down to. If you’re making your honest effort, and you’re making an honest sell of your city, to the people you need to sell it to that’s pretty much all you can ask from your elected representative.

MG — So Kinew’s cabinet has yet to be chosen. It’s not easy. There’s no guidebook, right? He has to choose among various people and there’s always a question about representation outside of Winnipeg. Now there are two NDP MLAs in western Manitoba — one in Dauphin and one in Brandon East. Do you have any expectations, or are you more like, “whatever happens, happens?”

GS — Whatever happens happens. I think that looking at the result of the election, the NDP has a strong bench. And for my own self, I feel like the way that I campaigned, the way that I presented myself, my 27 years as a professional, my relationships in the city here, I think they show that I have abilities. But at the same time, sometimes your abilities are better served elsewhere, so I’m prepared for whatever role I’m deemed worthy of assuming and ready to work for Brandon. And we’ll play those those cards as they’re dealt to us.