Longtime NDP MLA faces new challengers in Selkirk

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This article was published 07/04/2016 (3537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SELKIRK — For a quarter of a century, the only MLA the provincial riding of Selkirk has ever known is the NDP’s Greg Dewar.

He won his first race in 1990, at the age of 35. He went on to win another five elections, making Selkirk the only safe southern Manitoba seat for the NDP outside of Brandon East and the City of Winnipeg. In the aftermath of the NDP’s 2014-15 civil war, he ascended to the position of Manitoba’s finance minister.

Now, at age 60, Dewar is battling for election victory No. 7. This time, it won’t come easy.

The Liberal party, which garnered a mere 351 votes in Selkirk in 2011, is mounting an actual campaign this time. Former steel worker Stefan Jones is hoping to become the first Grit to represent the Red River Valley riding since Gwen Charles’ stint as a member of the Opposition (1988-90).

The Progressive Conservatives, who have never won in Selkirk, are hoping semi-retired veterinarian Alan Lagimodiere can make their 17th effort a charm. Since the riding was established in 1958, it has passed back and forth between the NDP and either the Liberals or their predecessors, the Liberal-Progressives.

In recent elections, however, the Tory vote has increased, possibly because of demographic change. The expansion of bedroom communities in the southern reaches of the RM of St. Clements had made the Selkirk constituency more affluent — and wealthier voters tend to be more conservative.

“We’re confident we can hold (the) seat, but I think it will be a closer battle this time around,” Dewar said on a Friday morning at his campaign headquarters on Manitoba Avenue in downtown Selkirk. “We have a Liberal candidate who’s out there campaigning, and last time, they basically found someone to put their name on the ballot.”

After nearly 26 years in office, Dewar said he still has work to do. He said he wants to make see the end of construction at Selkirk hospital and find some means to extend bus service between Winnipeg and Selkirk after Beaver Bus Lines abandons the route on Canada Day. This is possible, he said, because the province pays for 50 per cent of both Winnipeg and Selkirk’s transit services.

Jones said the end of bus service to Winnipeg is “not going to be good but it’s out of my hands.” He cites education, mental health, and Selkirk’s aging population as the largest issues facing the riding.

“It’s been 25 years of the same, the same out here,” said Jones, 54, sitting in a campaign office located a few storefronts to the west of Dewar’s. “I would say it’s going to be, for the first time, a three-way race… we have as good a chance or better as anybody.”

The Tory campaign, meanwhile, got off to a hiccup of a start. In January, the party turfed its initial nominee (David Horbas), citing unspecified shortcomings.

That led to the recruitment of Lagimodiere, whose Red River Valley roots include a relation to Marie-Anne Gaboury Lagimodière, grandmother of Louis Riel.

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Lagimodiere, 60, said no single issue stands out as the most pressing for Selkirk, citing instead a laundry list that includes emergency room wait times, a shortage of seniors housing, land-drainage issues, and the province’s growing deficits and debt.

“I haven’t seen (Dewar) come to the table with any plan to make a difference in that area,” Lagimodiere said at his Main Street campaign headquarters.

The incumbent finance minister, who presides over $21.3-billion worth of debt and a forecast deficit of $773 million this year, said voters know why red ink is flowing on Broadway.

“People understand the economy is struggling now. They recognize we’re no different than most provinces when it comes to dealing with it,” Dewar said. “In these uncertain times, it’s important to invest in the economy.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca