Berthelette officially announced as NDP candidate
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Newly nominated candidate Ray Berthelette has a real chance of winning Spruce Woods for the NDP says Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.
“We think we have a chance,” Kinew said after announcing Berthelette’s candidacy Thursday in Brandon. “We’ve got a great candidate that we believe in and we’ll be working hard to try and elect Ray Berthelette,” he said.
Kinew, accompanied by several NDP MLAs, made the announcement to a crowd of about 100 party supporters at the Monterey Estates on Brandon’s North Hill.
Ray Berthelette accepts the nomination to run as the NDP candidate in the byelection for Spruce Woods on Thursday afternoon. The race in this yellow-dog riding may be closer than you think, writes Curtis Brown. (Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun file)
Berthelette, a Brandon realtor and former executive assistant to Brandon East MLA Glen Simard, said he has already started knocking on doors and will work hard for the constituency if elected.
“I will work hard, very hard, to be the voice of this constituency,” he said. “We are already getting to work, meeting people across the riding.”
In a scrum after the announcement, Berthelette said he also believes he has a shot at winning the riding, which is historically a Progressive Conservative stronghold.
“We’ve got a shot at it, and we’re going to work hard as a team to go out there,” said Berthelette, who lives in the riding.
The PCs last won the riding by more than 61 per cent of the vote, which is its lowest share of the vote since the riding was created in 2011. Grant Jackson won that election and stepped down in March to run federally. His resignation triggered the need for a byelection, which has still not been called.
The PCs have won the riding in the past with as much as 73 per cent of the vote.
Kinew said the NDP will take the byelection seriously.
“We’ve got a byelection in a beautiful part of Manitoba, and so we’re going to do our part to show people we’re serious about it, and then it’ll be up to the voter to decide.”
To hold the seat in rural Manitoba, Kinew added, “would be big.”
Five-year-old Maya Carr, daughter of Brandon School Division trustee Kirk Carr, smiles while helping her father hold an election sign for Spruce Woods NDP candidate Ray Berthelette during the party’s nomination announcement on Thursday afternoon. (Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun)
It would be “saying that we’re a government that is serious for every region of the province, and to let people know that we are listening to them and we’re representing them,” he said.
The NDP also holds rural seats in Dauphin and Brandon East.
“We’re going to try hard when it comes to the campaigning, and we’re going to try hard when it comes to the governing, to do right by people in Westman,” Kinew said.
He said all Manitobans have a lot in common.
“When I talk to people in rural Manitoba, and when I talk to people in the urban centres, whether it’s Brandon or Winnipeg, it’s not that different.”
Berthelette, who didn’t give his age when asked, saying “that’s a stupid question,” said if he’s elected to the legislature he will focus on helping people who live in the constituency.
“I want to see the people of Spruce Woods get what all the rest of the province has been getting — infrastructure, access to ministers, responses to questions when they have them, that kind of stuff,” he said.
He said roads, access to cheap food and health care are the most important things he will advocate for.
“We want to have health care working better in rural communities, so that way they will have the same type of access they do in Winnipeg.”
He has knocked on about 400 doors already and will try to visit every home in the riding, he said.
Kinew has to schedule the byelection for no later than Sept. 16.
The NDP is the last major party to announce a candidate, as both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals announced theirs in early June. The Green party said it won’t be running anyone.
The PCs chose Colleen Robbins from Souris as its candidate and the Liberals selected Brandon teacher Stephen Reid.
» alambert@brandonsun.com