Kinew slams Stefanson at NDP campaign launch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/09/2023 (777 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew promised a better Manitoba and launched a broadside against Premier Heather Stefanson’s Tories at the party’s campaign launch on the eve of the writ dropping Monday.

“The PCs want us to be divided. Heather Stefanson wants us to be divided. She wants to pit different communities against one another,” Kinew told hundreds of supporters at the University of Manitoba Smartpark Innovation Hub Monday afternoon.

“She wants to march in the Pride Parade and then turn people against trans kids. She wants to pit the unionized worker against the non-unionized employees. But that’s not who Manitobans are. Manitobans aren’t divided. We are united, we are one people.”

The official countdown to the Oct. 3 election will begin today, when Stefanson will issue the writs of election and the Tories will fight for their third term in office.

Kinew said the NDP has an opportunity to end that reign and promised that the next month’s fight would be one his party could win.

“After seven years of cuts to health care, seven years of inaction on climate change, after seven years of wage freezes and rising bills during a cost of living crisis, this is the most important election in recent memory,” he said. “In fact, this might be the most important election in all Canada.”

His speech focused on promises the party have already made leading up to campaign season, including freezing Hydro rates, temporarily cutting the provincial gas tax, supporting union membership, investing in staffing health care units in Winnipeg and rural areas, attacking climate change and supporting lower income Manitobans.

“We are the party that doesn’t leave anyone behind,” he said. “And if we’re going to solve global warming, we have to bring every single member of the working class with us.”

Kinew also accused the provincial Conservative party of sowing hate amongst Manitobans.

“I would like to gaze down the barrel that the PCs have pointed at us,” he said. “They’re running on anger, despair and division.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Head Start

Weekday Mornings

A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.

Sign up for Head Start

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Other NDP MLAs in attendance took shots at Stefanson before Kinew’s speech.

“Other than one cringe-worthy video, has anybody seen Heather Stefanson lately?” said St. John’s MLA Nahanni Fontaine, referencing a video Stefanson had posted on social media critical of striking union workers.

“No, because she’s hiding, the PCs are hiding their leader. And why? Because the PCs know that Manitobans are fed up.”

As of Monday, the NDP had 56 candidates registered with Elections Manitoba, not including Kinew. The PCs have 55 candidates registered, and the Liberals have 35. The Green Party of Manitoba has 13 candidates registered.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak 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.