To no one’s surprise – after the polls predicted that the NDP would form government – Manitobans sent the NDP to the legislature with a majority government on Oct. 3.
With a focus on restoring health care cuts made by the previous Progressive Conservative government and supporting Manitobans through the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the NDP won 34 seats in the legislative assembly. The Progressive Conservatives picked up 22 seats and the Liberal Party got one seat.
There are 57 seats in the legislative assembly. Twenty-nine seats are required to form a majority government.
NDP premier Wab Kinew becomes the first First Nations premier to be elected in Manitoba.
In the Interlake-Gimli riding, Progressive Conservative MLA incumbent Derek Johnson received 5,126 votes while NDP candidate Sarah Pinsent-Bardarson was a close contender with 4,444 seats. Larry Brandt of the Keystone Party received 391 votes and Sean James of the Liberal Party received 367, according to Elections Manitoba’s unofficial results as of Oct. 8.
In addition to serving as MLA for the riding and as agriculture minister under the former government, Johnson said he feels humbled by the support of voters in the Interlake-Gimli riding and attributes his win to his and his government’s past support for the riding.
“I think they’ve probably seen how I represented the Interlake-Gimli riding in the legislature and I think they’re happy that I’m available and accessible at various community events and that I support community endeavours, whether that’s through grants under the green team, building sustainable communities and sport, culture and heritage. I think they realize how much of an investment our government has made in Interlake-Gimli,” said Johnson last Friday before he headed out to Arborg’s annual Culturama celebration.
Over the next four years, Johnson said his priorities will be to “hold feet to the fire” on issues such as the North End Water Pollution Control Centre upgrades to reduce phosphorus loading to Lake Winnipeg as that’s “important to Interlakers and all Manitobans,” continue to “chip away at drainage, roads and infrastructure” projects that need attention and continue to support initiatives that will help re-build the rural health-care system.
“We need to continue supporting communities like Arborg, which has a nurse training program and is about to graduate their 40th nurse,” said Johnson. “It’s important to train people with rural roots than to try to attract people to rural Manitoba to work in our health-care system.”
As far as working with the new NDP government, Johnson said the Conservatives already had a working relationship with the party when it served as the official opposition, and he’s sure “they’ll continue that relationship now that we’re in opposition.”
Former PC premier Heather Stefanson announced that she’ll be serving as interim Progressive Conservative leader until a new leader is found, likely in 2024.
Johnson said he’s not, at the moment, thinking of running for party leader as he’s seen how hard his colleagues worked and how much time it took away from their personal and family lives.
“I will wait and see who throws their hat in the ring,” said Johnson. “I’m sure there are lots of good contenders out there.”
In the run-up to the election, NDP leader Wab Kinew promised to reduce wait times at emergency rooms by re-opening three Winnipeg ERs (Seven Oaks, Concordia and Victoria hospitals) that the PCs had converted into urgent care centres, and promised to add more than 130 beds over the next four years once the staffing is available.
Kinew also committed to adding 60 beds at the Health Sciences Centre, Manitoba’s largest hospital that serves patients from across the province, 30 beds at St. Boniface hospital, 34 beds at Grace hospital and 10 beds at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, according to a news release issued a day before the election.
The NDP also promised to build a new ER in Eriksdale to serve residents along Highway 6 and beyond, create more personal care home beds, including in Arborg, and hire more paramedics.
Sarah Pinsent-Bardarson, who was down 682 votes to Johnson (as of Oct. 8), spent the past four years meeting with residents, municipal councils and school divisions to hear their concerns. She said she’s pleased that she and her team garnered significant support from Interlakers.
“For the past four years, our Interlake-Gimli team of volunteers and I have worked tirelessly to spread the message of hope, positivity and unity to our voters here and we succeeded. We significantly increased our number of votes, and that’s a result of meeting thousands of folks who were eager and encouraging of change and supported my leadership,” she said. “I’m very proud of our campaign and that every step of the way we demonstrated our sincerity, integrity and accountability to the voters here. Manitobans voted for better health care, lower costs and a government that would bring us together, not tear us apart.”
Pinsent-Bardarson said people in the riding will benefit under the leadership of Premier Wab Kinew and the NDP.
“We are a thriving NDP team in Interlake-Gimli and I encourage everyone to join our team of volunteers and keep the NDP momentum building for coming years,” said Pinsent-Bardarson.
