Status quo at Manitoba polls

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This article was published 20/06/2023 (833 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans in two contested federal ridings overwhelmingly voted to stay the course, sending Liberal Ben Carr to Parliament Hill and People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier packing.

In the rural, socially conservative riding of Portage—Lisgar, Conservative candidate Branden Leslie dominated the race, with voters giving the 33-year-old an overwhelming mandate.

“It’s extremely humbling to have my friends, family and neighbours give us a strong mandate to go be their conservative voice in Ottawa,” Leslie said after delivering an address to supporters gathered at his campaign office in Portage la Prairie. “It is a task that I am up for and excited for to go and represent our values, our viewpoints and fight for communities in Ottawa.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to actually get to work.”

According to unofficial election results, Leslie earned 64.7 per cent of the vote with 240 out of 248 polls reporting at publishing time (96.7 per cent). A byelection was necessary after former Conservative interim leader and longtime MP Candice Bergen stepped down earlier this year.

Leslie, manager of policy and government relations with Grain Growers of Canada and a former staffer in Stephen Harper’s government, trounced his nearest challenger, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier.

Bernier, a former Conservative cabinet minister who quit the party in 2018 to launch his own political party, earned 17.3 per cent of the vote.

“It’s extremely humbling to have my friends, family and neighbours give us a strong mandate to go be their conservative voice in Ottawa.”– Branden Leslie

The controversial, populist party leader campaigned on prohibiting the provision of some health care services to transgender youth, reopening the abortion debate in Parliament, and changing the Criminal Code to allow property owners to use deadly force in response to violent trespassers.

Based on unofficial results, Bernier was not able to match the 21.6 per cent support his party’s candidate earned in the 2021 general election.

Leslie said his message of “freedom” resonated strongly in the riding, which has a population of about 100,400 people across roughly 12,600-square-kilometres. Portage—Lisgar residents were more interested in opposing the carbon tax and protecting the “rural way of life” than issues raised by the competition.

He campaigned on pledges to eliminate the carbon tax, advocate on behalf of hunters and sport shooters, and to never attend the World Economic Forum, if elected.

“I think it’s just as much a vote of confidence in me and my campaign as it is in (Conservative Leader) Pierre Poilievre and our leadership, and a strong desire to fire Justin Trudeau as our prime minister in the next general election,” he said.

Liberal Kerry Smith was third among the candidates, earning 8.7 per cent of the vote, followed by the NDP’s Lisa Tessier-Burch (7.1 per cent) and Green Party candidate Nicolas Geddert (2.3 per cent).

Meanwhile, at the Fort Garry Legion in the riding of Winnipeg South Centre, Liberal candidate Ben Carr claimed victory, filling the seat vacated by his father Jim Carr, who died in December after a battle with blood cancer and kidney failure.

“He would have been really proud of his son,” the 36-year-old former principal and current vice-president of Indigenous Strategy Alliance told reporters Monday night.

Carr earned 53.7 per cent of the vote with 93 per cent of polls reporting, according to unofficial results.

The record-setting ballot with 48 candidates was expected to slow down the count, according to Elections Canada.

Carr thanked all the candidates who put their name on the ballot and expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to represent people in the place he has called home his entire life.

“I was just reminded throughout the course of this campaign of how important community is and how important it was in shaping who I am,” Carr said. “The privilege, and the responsibility that comes along with that privilege, to represent people that you know so deeply and have such a personal connection to is a wonderful feeling, but it’s one that I intend to take extremely seriously.”

Conservative candidate Damir Stipanovich was Carr’s nearest competitor in the 48-way race. The retired air traffic controller earned 22.9 per cent of the vote to finish second.

Carr argued the favourable result reflected the persistent popularity of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau among Winnipeg South Centre residents and the leader’s vision for the country.

“I think what people in Winnipeg South Centre have shown us tonight, and what they’ve told us – myself and my team – over the course of the past couple of months is that they believe in the progress that we’ve made as a country, they believe that the government has had their back, they understand that the investments that we’re making and that we’re going to continue to make are going to have a profound difference in their lives,” he said.

The NDP’s Julia Riddell earned 16.6 per cent of the vote followed by Green Party candidate Doug Hemmerling, and PPC candidate Tylor Baer. The 41 independent candidates including local resident Tait Palson each received 0.1 per cent, or less, of all ballots cast.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca