Voters unnerved by ‘unsavoury’ campaign targeting certain city constituencies

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This article was published 02/10/2023 (732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg residents are being targeted by an obscure political operative encouraging voters to consider all candidates in the upcoming provincial election — a message some are interpreting as a veiled attempt to split the vote.

“It’s creepy. It’s election interference,” Southdale resident Leslie Penner said, referring to a letter hand-delivered to her home on Southbridge Drive.

The letter, bearing the masthead Civic Progress Network and attributed to a person named Jeremy Vukovic, tells voters to consider candidates outside of the Progressive Conservative and Manitoba NDP. It did not include a stamp or a return address, Penner said.

The Free Press was unable to verify whether such a person or organization exists. Neither are registered as a third party with Elections Manitoba, and have no apparent digital footprint.

“The PCs and NDP are trying to bully us into believing they are our only two viable options,” the letter reads. “The reality is that on the day after the election, Manitoba will most likely be led by the NDP…. The question is: Will Premier Wab Kinew be solely surrounded by the ‘yes-people’ in his party, or will he need to work alongside representatives of a diverse group of Manitobans?”

Penner, who is not eligible to vote because her primary address is in B.C., said she believes the messaging is intended to fracture votes between the NDP, Manitoba Liberal and Green parties. Other Southdale residents reached out to the Free Press with the same concerns, after receiving phone calls from people purporting to work for the network.

“It’s not just the flyers, it’s phone calls, too. It’s a campaign,” Penner said. “Whoever is behind this — and it’s, of course, not just one person, it’s a group — I don’t think they should think they can get away with it. This is just really unsavoury.”

The note continues to encourage voters to diversify their votes and not to fall victim to “shadowy special interests.”

While the messaging does not appear to clearly violate Manitoba election laws, there are requirements for third-party groups promoting or opposing an official party to register with Elections Manitoba. There is also a $25,000 communication expense limit for such groups during the election period.

Elections Manitoba confirmed it is aware of the letters and referred request for comment to the Manitoba Commissioner of Elections, who is responsible for investigating all potential violations of the Elections Act and the Election Financing Act.

The commissioner did not respond to requests for comment.

Other flyers from the Civic Progress Network have been spotted in St. Boniface (home to Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont) and St.Vital — with these explicitly encouraging constituents to cast their votes for Liberal candidates.

“We don’t know who that group is, and we have no affiliation and no financial affiliation with them at all,” Liberal spokesperson Colin Roy said by phone. “Our name is all over it, but we don’t know where this is coming from.”

The PC party and NDP also denied any connection to the group.

“These are the kinds of dirty campaign tactics that, unfortunately, we’ve seen employed throughout the campaign,” NDP spokesperson Rorie McLeod-Arnould wrote in an email.

Political analyst Royce Koop said voter scrutiny around the messaging is warranted.

“If you get a letter in the mail, you want to Google the group or see what you’re dealing with, and if you can’t even find the person online, or find the organization online, then you should maybe be a little concerned about the advice you’re being given and the information,” he said.

“We do see things happen in election campaigns that can be unsavoury, and I think people just need to be cautious and they need to be critical when they get stuff like this.”

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Koop would not speculate on who might be behind the campaign, but said it is certainly targeted to regions where split votes could make a difference.

“In Southdale, that actually is probably the best seat in the province to send a letter like this because a high-profile Liberal candidate there could actually make a difference,” he added, referring to Robert-Falcon Ouellette, a former Liberal MP.

A split vote could help incumbent PC candidate Audrey Gordon, the health minister, retain her seat.

“If they are making calls and hand-delivering letters, it likely means somebody is spending money,” Koop said. “If someone actually took this advice, it would benefit every (party) except for the NDP.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.