Federal Tories nominate former PC cabinet minister Morley-Lecomte to challenge Duguid in Winnipeg South

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/01/2025 (295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Tory MLA and cabinet minister Janice Morley-Lecomte will be facing off against the country’s sports minister in the upcoming federal election.

Morley-Lecomte, who was mental health and community wellness minister for nine months in former premier Heather Stefanson’s government before losing her Seine River seat in the last election, has been chosen to run for the Conservative party in the Winnipeg South riding.

The riding has been held by Liberal MP Terry Duguid, who was recently appointed sports minister, as well as the minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, since 2015.

“(She) was part of the Conservative government which was shown the door in late 2023, just a little more than a year ago,” Duguid said Tuesday.

“I think Manitobans recall very vividly that the Conservatives brought major cuts to our health-care system that is still recovering from the devastation that they brought.

“They closed the Victoria Hospital emergency ward, right in the heart of Winnipeg South.”

No one from the Conservative Party of Canada or the Winnipeg South Conservative Association could be reached for comment.

Winnipeg South is one of seven of Manitoba’s 14 ridings in which at least two of the three major parties have nominated candidates for election, which must be held by Oct. 20.

Both Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh have vowed to vote down the minority Liberal government at their first opportunity, which will be in late March when Parliament reopens.

A Manitoba political scientist said the three major parties still have many ridings to fill with candidates for an election that could be just weeks away.

“Is it an intentional tactic to keep them under the radar to avoid scrutiny?” Kelly Saunders, an associate political science professor at Brandon University said Tuesday.

“Is it to prevent the media from profiling them and look at their past social media posts or statements they have made in the past? Or is it they are a little disorganized and not putting out effective notices?

“It’s not like we didn’t know an election was coming in 2025.”

The Liberal party in Manitoba, which many pundits say will be in a tough slog to see their candidates elected or re-elected in the four Winnipeg ridings they currently hold, appear to have the most candidates officially nominated at six, all in Winnipeg ridings.

Along with Duguid, they include MPs Kevin Lamoureaux (Winnipeg North) and Ben Carr (Winnipeg South Centre), as well as candidates Ian MacIntyre (Elmwood-Transcona), Rahul Walia (Winnipeg Centre) and former MP Doug Eyolfson (Winnipeg West). No candidate has been chosen in Saint Boniface-Saint Vital, where Liberal MP and cabinet minister Dan Vandal announced last year he was not going to be running again.

Looking at local party riding websites, the Conservatives have three candidates nominated — Morley-Lecomte, Ted Falk (Provencher) and Royden Brousseau (Winnipeg South Centre). The NDP have just one candidate nominated, Emily Clark in Kildonan-St. Paul, which Tory MP Raquel Dancho currently represents.

Saunders said the parties should already have chosen their slates of candidates.

“They owe it to the voters,” she said. “I would have hoped the parties would be much more organized and much more public and transparent.”

But Duguid, who is also co-chair of the Liberal national campaign, and who was nominated in his own riding two years ago, said it is not unusual for parties to nominate candidates in the run-up to an election.

“We will have some more names for you in a few weeks,” he said, noting Saint Boniface-Saint Vital should be next to announce a candidate. “Because we’ve had a minority government, the timing of an election was very uncertain… I think all parties are picking up the pace.

“When the threat of an election is in the air, then all parties pick up the pace.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca