Liberals add more women candidates

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This article was published 15/08/2023 (940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s Liberals are counting on a growing number of women to carry the party’s flag into the fall election campaign.

Announcing six women expected to be nominated as candidates — to the five already confirmed — to run in the Oct. 3 provincial race, Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said Monday the party has not set a target for gender parity, but is trying to reduce barriers to female participation in the political system.

“They already know how the systems work and what needs to change,” he said at a news conference outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

At this point, 44 per cent of the Liberals’ 25 confirmed or expected candidates are women; Lamont said the party will nominate people to contest all 57 provincial ridings.

Of the 44 candidates nominated so far for the provincial NDP, 18 are women or non-binary candidates (41 per cent). The Progressive Conservatives have nominated 51 candidates so far, out of which 16 are women (31 per cent).

Lamont pointed to high provincial rates of violence against women as the most pressing equality issue in Manitoba, saying the party has introduced policies aimed at providing safe shelter, reducing recidivism and enforcing restraining orders. He suggested the party would work to reduce systemic discrimination in medical research and in the health system, as well as supporting nursing and teaching, two fields dominated by women.

“When you think about how we made it through the pandemic, it was overwhelmingly education and health systems that bore us through, and they are overwhelmingly run by women. And they have faced freezes, cuts … and, really, contempt,” he said.

Rhonda Nichol, who retired from her Grace Hospital nursing career in February after 37 years working in the health-care system, spoke about why she’s running in Kirkfield Park.

“There was no question in my mind I needed to get involved in politics,” she said. “As a nurse working in the system, I can only say so much. Now that I’m out of the system and retired, I am at more liberty to speak, to speak up for people working in the system and also to speak up for the public.”

Eddie Calisto-Tavares, who ran for the Liberals in 2019, was outspoken early in the pandemic about horrible conditions inside Maples Personal Care Home, where her 88-year-old father Manuel Calisto resided prior to his death in November 2020. She recalled donning personal protective gear and going into the residence as an example of her willingness to get things done.

“I can fight hard until I get what I need done,” said Calisto-Tavares, who is running in Maples.

“A lot of us don’t want to be politicians. We want to get into community and do what we need to do,” she added.

The nine others are Alvina Rundle in The Pas Kameesak; Katherine Johnson in Fort Rouge; Cyndy Friesen in Steinbach; Monica Guetre in La Verendrye; Nellie Monias in Keewatinook; incumbent MLA Cindy Lamoureux in Tyndall Park; Michelle Budiwski in Spruce Woods; LeAmber Kinsley in Riel; and Shandi Strong in Fort Garry.

» Winnipeg Free Press