Trudeau to hold town-hall meeting in Winnipeg

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This article was published 22/01/2018 (3128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to Winnipeg next Wednesday to answer questions halfway through his mandate.

The Free Press has learned Trudeau will be visiting the city on Jan. 31 as part of his Town Hall tour.

While the venue has yet to be confirmed, it’s likely to be a high school or university in an effort to get young people to attend. In the handful of town-hall meetings in eastern Canada, Trudeau has taken any questions the crowd asks, but has focused on the economy and jobs.

Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Trudeau announced the tour last month, saying it was aimed at hearing from people outside the Ottawa bubble to prevent “government-itis.” It comes two years into his four-year majority government mandate.

Attendees have asked about everything from the controversial business-tax reform to the Omar Khadr settlement. There have been some hecklers, including a man holding a Canadian flag with a swastika.

It’s not yet known whether Trudeau will meet with Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. The two have held opposing views on myriad issues, from the timeline for marijuana legalization to an estimated $66-million ultimatum on funding for carbon retrofits.

Last week, a Yazidi boy in Winnipeg who was held captive for three years by Iraqi militants asked to meet with Trudeau.

The Yazidi Association of Manitoba posted a video last week by 13-year-old Emad Mishko Tamo, who held signs saying he wanted to meet with Trudeau and talk about “a thousand other kids like me who are still held captive.”

An all-party House of Commons motion last February committed Canada to bring in 1,200 Iraqi refugees fleeing violence by the Islamic State group by the end of 2017. While many of those visas have been issued, mostly to Yazidis, roughly 200 people are still awaiting flights.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca