Goertzen defends Tory leader’s late-campaign rural travel

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative leader is staying out of the spotlight in Winnipeg during the last days of the election campaign.

Heather Stefanson made campaign stops in Brandon and Dauphin this week and wasn’t available to face questions in Winnipeg about her party’s late-stage ads emphasizing her decision not to search a landfill for the remains of Indigenous women and American-style attack ads on the NDP.

The Tory leader has been focusing on “direct voter engagement,” said PC candidate Kelvin Goertzen, who is seeking a sixth term representing Steinbach in the legislature.

Goertzen faced questions about Stefanson’s whereabouts at an unrelated PC news conference Friday.

“Leaders have to find different ways to connect with people,” whether it’s social media or talking directly to voters, and they can’t focus exclusively on traditional news media, Goertzen said, pushing back on a suggestion Stefanson may not want to answer tough questions.

“I think you’re diminishing Manitobans,” he said, saying he’s also been door-knocking during the campaign.

“The most accountability I get is at the door. Manitobans ask politicians tough questions. (Reporters) ask politicians tough questions as well, but you’re not the only ones.”

Stefanson’s rural travels may be a way to “avoid her having to field ‘gotcha’ questions,” at public appearances in Winnipeg, said Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

But he said political party leaders’ time is allocated by their campaign managers and they typically target constituencies they see as particularly important to win.

It’s likely private poll results are informing the Tories’ decision to target Dauphin and Brandon East, which the PCs took from the NDP in 2016, Thomas said.

At this point, it’s likely the majority of voters have made up their minds. A recent Probe Research poll suggested only about 11 per cent of voters were still undecided.

“Part of it may be that voters have heard enough,” Thomas said.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew, who spoke to reporters outside Victoria Hospital Friday afternoon in an appeal to voters in south Winnipeg, said it’s important to visit all areas of the province.

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“However, I do think a lot of Manitobans have been very turned off by the advertising that they’ve seen from the PCs this week and, rather than hiding behind attack ads, I would just encourage Heather Stefanson to show up and campaign on the election that she called,” Kinew said.

On Friday, the Progressive Conservatives announced a plan to call an urgent summit to review criminal sentencing rules at the federal level if the party is re-elected to form government.

Goertzen and Fort Rouge PC candidate Rejeanne Caron, a Winnipeg Police Service officer, drew a connection between the provincial NDP and the federal Liberals, telling voters if they truly want to get tough on crime, they should vote PC.

Outside the Victoria Hospital urgent care clinic, Kinew reiterated his promises to south Winnipeg, starting with his pledge to reopen the hospital’s ER in two years’ time, and said he wanted to “ask folks in South Winnipeg to vote for us this year.”

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com

Katie May
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Katie May is a multimedia producer for the Free Press.

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