Lockdowns push grandmother into politics

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This article was published 16/09/2021 (1453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEGGER Bhavni Bhakoo expected to retire and spend most of her time with her grandchildren.

Instead, COVID-19 health orders helped to entice her to run for the People’s Party of Canada in Winnipeg Centre.

“In the lockdowns, I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t see my children, I couldn’t see my grandchildren, I couldn’t see anybody,” said Bhakoo, 58.

The multimedia artist said she spent decades living in downtown Winnipeg and believes reopening the economy is essential, since the once “thriving” area resembles a “ghost town.”

While the People’s Party of Canada has been widely criticized for its far-right stance, most recently for opposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates and health orders, Bhakoo said she feels it has been unfairly judged.

She rejects the party’s “anti-vax” label, noting she personally supports and has taken non-COVID vaccines. She believes too little research has been done on COVID-19 shots to prove their value.

“I’m choosing at 58 years old not to be a guinea pig for an experimental vaccine,” she said.

Bhakoo, who has East Indian ancestry and was raised in Kenya, moved to Manitoba 38 years ago. She said she feels strongly that Canadians’ rights were trampled on by measures meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and her party wants to rectify that.

“Basically, we’re here to give people an option. Here to bring back the Constitution… and give the people the rights and freedoms,” she said.

Another candidate whose party veers to the right of the Conservatives said voters need options beyond the large, established parties.

“I decided to put my name forward… really to give people the option to vote for a Christian party who’s strongly pro-life and against the mandatory vaccinations and testing, standing up for freedom,” said Jerome Dondo, the Portage-Lisgar candidate for the Christian Heritage Party.

While smaller parties are shut out of debates and don’t have much media access, Dondo urged voters to select candidates who represent their own beliefs. Even if that vote doesn’t lead to a candidate being elected, he said larger parties will take notice if others manage to chip away at their support.

For the People’s Party of Canada, most polls show a recent rise in support to between five and eight per cent of decided voters. If that is matched by voting results, it would mark a notable increase from the 1.62 per cent of Canadians who voted for the party in 2019.

The party has attracted candidates in all of Manitoba’s 14 federal ridings. Its leader, Maxime Bernier, has received plenty of attention this month during the Manitoba portion of his self-titled “Mad Max Tour.” Bernier, who has said he isn’t vaccinated, publicly acknowledged he could have been arrested again for failing to isolate after travelling to those rallies.

“I’m ready to go back in jail to defend our freedoms!” he tweeted on Sept. 6, alongside a picture of one Manitoba event.

He was arrested by RCMP at a rally in St-Pierre-Jolys on June 11 after being ticketed earlier in the day for disobeying public health orders when he attended an event in Niverville.

His party is also known for calling to “substantially lower” the number of immigrants and refugees Canada accepts each year, which has triggered allegations of racism.

While the PPC is unlikely to have enough support concentrated in one riding to win a Manitoba seat, it could manage to chip away at Conservative support in some of the most hotly contested ridings, said a public policy expert.

“Most of that is going to come from Conservative supporters. There are some races that’s going to throw a lead to the NDP or Liberals that they wouldn’t normally have won. That, I think, is (the PPC’s) big influence,” said Jim Farney, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Regina.

Farney said he doubts a People’s Party candidate will be elected on the Prairies and stressed it’s tough to predict how much of the current support at this point in the election will result in actual votes on Sept. 20.

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The professor said such far-right candidates are likely benefiting from the anger of those who oppose mask and vaccine mandates by offering them a “political outlet” for their views.

More general anti-establishment views may also fuel the increased support, said Farney.

“I think they’re probably mobilizing… a kind of anti-system vote, people who just see the system and the establishment as flawed,” he said.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne 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.