Ex-NDP education ministers on separate sides of byelection battle

A second retired education minister is getting involved in a school board byelection — to back a candidate running against her former NDP cabinet colleague.

There are three contenders for the trustee opening in Ward 3 of the Louis Riel School Division.

River Park South residents will vote on Saturday for either Ben Singer, a father who works in front-line facility services; lawyer Susanne Dandenault; or former Gimli NDP MLA Peter Bjornson.

Bjornson’s ministerial experience has raised the profile of the byelection, which takes place Saturday.

He oversaw the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 portfolio from 2003 to 2009, at which point Nancy Allan, then-NDP MLA for St. Vital, was shuffled in.

“Susanne is the best person for the job,” Allan said Wednesday, adding the next addition to the school board should not be “a career politician.”

“This is her first foray into politics, and she’s not political. She just cares about her community and she cares about young people.”

Bjornson called it “curious” that an NDP supporter — a former caucus colleague — is not backing him, given he’s been endorsed by the Winnipeg Labour Council.

“I’ve always been political, but I’m not a career politician,” Bjornson said, adding that his decision to leave the legislature “on (his) own terms” was reflective of that.

He said his ministerial experience makes him more of a “career educator.”

Upon learning Dandenault, a longtime family friend, had entered the race, Allan said she came out of retirement to help organize.

The 73-year-old recalled that in 2009, Greg Selinger — who had just been elected leader of the party and therefore premier — picked her for the education file because of her experience as a trustee.

It’s not the first time Allan and Bjornson have been on opposite sides.

Bjornson publicly supported Selinger during the 2015 campaign by key cabinet ministers to have him step down as leader as his popularity plummeted. Allan was a staunch backer of Theresa Oswald, who ultimately lost to Selinger in a vote at a party convention. The NDP lost the election a short time later.

Bjornson is a certified teacher who has won prestigious national prizes. The father of three adult children currently works as an instructor at the University of Winnipeg. He said he was motivated to re-enter public office because he’s confident he will be able to “do a lot of good things” at a grassroots level.

Dandenault, who practises corporate and Indigenous law, is an experienced parent advisory council chair. She currently oversees Sport Manitoba’s governing board. As a former competitive weightlifter, she was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Over the summer, a retired principal reached out to suggest she run for trustee.

“I needed somebody to give me the nudge,” she said, adding she’s since realized there are strong parallels between trusteeship and her advocacy work.

“I’ve advocated for all types of populations… as a lawyer, I advocate every day for my clients,” Dandenault said.

When Dandenault competed in the 1999 Pan Am Games in downtown Winnipeg, Allan was in the crowd. She had just begun her political career as a trustee in the Norwood School Division. (Allan served one term and supported a rare voluntary amalgamation in 1998 that led to the creation of the modern-day LRSD.)

Bjornson was an NDP MLA for roughly the same amount of time he worked at Gimli High School.

When Bjornson was in cabinet, he created a “safe school charter” and capped elementary classes.

During her stint as education minister, Allan mandated every child attend school until their 18th birthday — up from 16 — and tabled anti-bullying legislation in 2013 that critics argued forced homosexuality on impressionable teens.

The word “gay” only appeared once in the bill, which Allan said aimed to protect children from bullying both in class and online.

Dandenault said she views not being affiliated with a political party as a strength because she does not have any conflicts of interest or ties with sitting governments.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca