PCs hoping to recapture Kirkfield Park

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This article was published 15/04/2016 (3457 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometimes you have to confront Mount Everest — sometimes the daunting challenge is 21 votes.

That was the margin of victory in the Kirkfield Park riding for New Democrat Sharon Blady in the 2011 election.

Progressive Conservative Scott Fielding, it goes without saying, believes he can make up that ground and then some. “It was the closest seat in the province,” said Fielding, a former city councillor who’s been chasing the provincial seat since September 2014. “We’ve been door-knocking for over a year — we’re into our fourth round,” Fielding said.

The Kirkfield Park seat in St. James was solidly Tory until the NDP began winning majorities — maybe the name Eric Stefanson rings a bell? — and it must surely be in play this time. Kirkfield Park has a plethora of seniors and empty nesters who’ve stayed in their houses and to whom taxes can be an ugly word.

“There’s definitely mood for a change,” said Fielding, though he’d be unlikely to say otherwise. “We’re absolutely not taking anything for granted.”

Neither is Blady, who is Manitoba’s health minister. She said people tell her they thought she was safe last time and either stayed home or voted Green. Blady is delighted to see the Liberal poll numbers dropping: “Two-thirds of the neighbourhood vote NDP or Liberal. It wasn’t so much a Conservative neighbourhood, as the centre/left vote was being split.”

Blady said she is emphasizing her community involvement and the little things she’s done that add up to a lot: daycare centres, Community Places grants for veterans centres and community centres, retrofitting of two schools and a new roof for Westwood Community Church.

Fielding said it won’t help that Blady is health minister, as last year the Grace Hospital had the country’s longest reported wait times.

“I’ve heard from many people about the wait times at the Grace Hospital,” Fielding said. “Last year, having the longest wait times in the country is unacceptable.”

Blady’s take on the Grace Hospital is different. She said the wait-times data are several years old and based on voluntary reporting.

The new quick care clinic has taken the pressure off wait times, Blady insisted. There’s new diagnostic equipment at the Grace, a new monitoring system, and, “We’ll be the first community hospital with an MRI. It’s nice to have the construction started.”

 “The wait times at the Grace, they’re still not what I want them to be,” Blady acknowledged.

Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders said she could see Kirkfield Park going to Fielding, who had a high profile as a city councillor, along with “push-back against Blady, notably because she supported Selinger for leader,” she said.

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Lisa Omand is running for the Greens and Kelly Nord for the Liberals.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca