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Winnipeg Free Press
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
NDP casts eyes on vacant Spruce Woods seat
Premier Wab Kinew says he wants to see more rural NDP MLAs elected, but stopped short of revealing when he'll call a byelection for Spruce Woods. The western Manitoba seat long-held by the Tories was vacated in March by Grant Jackson, who successfully ran for the Conservatives in the federal election. Kinew, who was in the electoral district Friday for a funding announcement, said the NDP will field a candidate there when it is time. ALEX LAMBERT / THE BRANDON SUN FILES Spruce Woods was vacated in March by Tory Grant Jackson. 'I'm asking rural Manitoba to send more people to sit with our team on our side of the legislative chamber,' the premier told a crowd at Oak Lake, 52 kilometres west of Brandon. 'We want people to know we're investing in the future of the province,' he said, touting a flurry of government investments in the Westman region in recent weeks. The Progressive Conservatives accused the NDP of 'buying votes' ahead of the byelection that must be called by Sept. 24. Under Elections Manitoba rules, when the writ of election drops, a government communications blackout begins. 'It's very curious to me that in the last several weeks before a blackout period before a byelection, the premier has made four significant announcements in Spruce Woods and Westman,' said Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen. 'It's akin to buying votes, in my opinion,' said the PC justice critic and former Brandon Police Service chief. On Friday, the premier announced $95,000 for an aeration system for Oak Lake. On Thursday, the province announced $500,000 for Brandon's Spruce Woods Housing Co-Op. On Wednesday, the province announced $19.7 million to rehabilitate Oak Lake Dam. 'That's all in Spruce Woods' district,' Balcaen said. 'Before that, there was crickets from this government, with anything to do with Spruce Woods and more so anything in rural Manitoba.' Standing near Oak Lake's shore Friday, Kinew told attendees that, when elected to its majority win, his NDP government indeed remembered rural Manitoba, including cutting the provincial fuel tax and reopening the Carberry hospital emergency department. Kinew said he wants to end the Western Canadian urban-rural political divide. 'I want our province to be united. I think it would be a shame if we just kind of throw up our hands and say, 'That's the way things are,'' the premier said. 'I think it's incumbent on people in government to listen to the concerns of people from all geographic regions and do their best to bring that to the table,' he told the crowd. 'When the byelection comes, yes, we are going to bring a candidate forward from the area who we want you to send to the legislature … Somebody to sit at the decision making table, rather than to just chirp from the sideline.' That won't be easy in Spruce Woods, which is considered a safe Tory seat. 'They usually win by 20 or 30 or 40 points,' said University of Manitoba political studies Prof. Christopher Adams. 'I would say that the NDP would be very surprised if they won that constituency.' He noted, however, there have been recent upsets with the New Democrats winning so-called safe seats. Carla Compton took Tuxedo — Tory blue for decades — in a 2024 byelection after PC premier Heather Stefanson lost the 2023 election and vacated the seat. Long-time Liberal MLA for River Heights Jon Gerrard lost in that election to the NDP's Mike Moroz. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. 'I think there's not enough of a backlash to the PCs happening in Spruce Woods, as was happening in Tuxedo,' Adams said. 'It's not a great time for the PCs in rural Manitoba, but I think I'd be very surprised if there were an upset in Spruce Woods.' The PCs are languishing in the polls and their new leader, Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan, didn't have strong support in Spruce Woods during the leadership race earlier this year. His opponent, Wally Daudrich, won a greater share of votes in the electoral district. Two candidates have thus far registered with Elections Manitoba to run in the byelection. The PCs nominated longtime party volunteer Colleen Robbins; Brandon teacher Stephen Reid will carry the banner for the Liberals. 'I think any seat is open for any political party,' said Balcaen. 'We have to constantly put in the effort and the work with our constituents and you know we'll continue to do that … We work for every vote we get.' Carol SandersLegislature reporter Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol. Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
05-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Manitoba premier suggests he won't call byelection until NDP better able to compete in conservative riding
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he won't call a byelection in Spruce Woods until his New Democratic Party is better able to compete in the conservative southwestern Manitoba constituency — and suggested PC demands to call the byelection sooner amount to a request for a political "freebies." Spruce Woods has been vacant since March 24, when former Progressive Conservative MLA Grant Jackson resigned his seat to run in the federal election. Kinew said he wants to give his party a better opportunity to be competitive in a constituency it has never won. "I don't know if everyone in the province knows what I'm like, but there's no freebies with me," Kinew said Friday during a scrum with reporters at Canada Life Centre,. "I want to put a serious effort forward in the Spruce Woods byelection. I'm speaking now as a leader of the Manitoba NDP. I want our team out there canvassing. I want our team out there contesting. I want us in the communities that have never put up an NDP sign before in southwestern Manitoba to talk to our canvassers and to hear our plan." No party other than the PCs has won Spruce Woods since it was created in 2011. Former MLAs Jackson and Cliff Cullen won more than 60 per cent of the vote in the constituency in each of the four provincial elections held over the past 14 years. For weeks, Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan has accused Kinew of dragging his feet on the byelection call, noting it's been 102 days since Jackson resigned and a byelection will require another 28 to 35 days. Kinew called byelections more quickly to fill two Winnipeg seats where the NDP were competitive. The 2024 Tuxedo byelection, which was won by the NDP's Carla Compton, was held 43 days after former MLA Heather Stefanson resigned, while the 2025 Transcona byelection, which Shannon Corbett won for the NDP, was held within 63 days of the death of NDP MLA Nello Altomare. Khan said Friday Kinew is playing games, noting how Prime Minister Mark Carney wasted little time in calling a federal byelection in rural Alberta's Battle River-Crowfoot even though the Liberal Party of Canada has very little chance of winning in the extremely conservative riding. "It's sad to see the premier equating democracy and the right of Manitobans and the people of Spruce Woods constituents — their rights to vote — with freebies," Khan said Friday outside the Manitoba Legislative Building. "I don't know what he's talking about with freebies. There are no freebies in the legislature. All 57 seats are earned. All 57 seats represent their constituencies. People have a right to vote. The Premier is denying those people." Kinew also claimed Spruce Woods is affected by the forest fires in northern Manitoba, noting some evacuees are living in Brandon-area hotels that are located in the constituency. In Manitoba, byelections must be held within six months of a constituency becoming vacant. In order to ensure that happens, Kinew can not wait later than the third week of August to beat the September deadline for a byelection.
CBC
04-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Manitoba PCs nominate former party volunteer to run in Spruce Woods byelection
Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives have nominated a party volunteer as their candidate in the upcoming Spruce Woods byelection. Souris resident Colleen Robbins, the former PC regional director in southwestern Manitoba, was the only candidate who completed the process to apply for the party's nomination in Spruce Woods, the Tories informed party members via email on Tuesday. Party spokesperson Michele Halverson confirmed the nomination. Robbins will attempt to succeed former PC Spruce Woods MLA Grant Jackson, who resigned in March to run as the federal Conservative candidate in Brandon-Souris. Jackson is now a Conservative MP. The PC candidate in Spruce Woods is the presumptive MLA by virtue of the fact no other party has won the southwestern Manitoba constituency since it was created in 2011. In four provincial elections over the past 14 years, former MLAs Jackson and Cliff Cullen won more than 60 per cent of the vote in the constituency. Former PC leadership candidate Wally Daudrich, who lost the Official Opposition party's leadership race to Obby Khan in April, initially expressed interest in running for the party in Spruce Woods but did not apply for the nomination. Daudrich said Tuesday he asked Khan to appoint him as a candidate in a goodwill gesture, considering Khan narrowly won the leadership on a weighted vote. Khan declined and insisted on a contested nomination in Spruce Woods, Daudrich said. Jon Lovlin, a spokesperson for Khan, said the party must respect grassroots decisions. Daudrich said he has no interest in running for any other party. He said the creation of any new right-of-centre party in Manitoba would be counterproductive for the conservative movement. A byelection in Spruce Woods must be called by Sept. 24. Premier Wab Kinew has yet to indicate when the byelection will take place.
