New faces abound when legislature resumes

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This article was published 04/10/2023 (755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Logan Oxenham is not only one of the new faces at the Manitoba Legislature; he has already made history.

Oxenham, a correctional officer at the Manitoba Youth Centre, is the province’s first transgender MLA, after defeating Tory environment and climate minister — and former city councillor — Kevin Klein to win Kirkfield Park for the NDP.

“As trans, it is huge that I was elected,” he said Wednesday.

“Representation definitely matters, especially with the attacks on the trans community in the last number of months. Now, with trans youth especially, they can see you can have good lives and success stories. It’s not just doom and gloom.”

Oxenham said his win is being celebrated beyond the borders of Manitoba.

“People have reached out to me from around the world,” he said. “It’s such an honour, and the community really needs some hope right now.”

But while Oxenham has made history, he is not alone in being a legislature rookie.

In what amounts to a house-cleaning of about half of the chamber, 23 of 57 ridings across the province are now represented by people who have never set foot inside the legislature as an elected MLA.

And a 24th MLA, newly minted Dauphin representative Ron Kostyshyn, was elected in the riding for the first time but had previously served as a cabinet minister in the Selinger government, having been elected from nearby Swan River (he was defeated in 2016 after one term).

Sixteen of the rookies will be part of the NDP government, while eight will join the Progressive Conservatives in the official Opposition benches.

At 23 years of age, Jelynn Dela Cruz, who defeated two-term Tory MLA and consumer protection and government services minister James Teitsma in Radisson, is the youngest NDP MLA elected since 22-year-old Ed Schreyer won his provincial seat in the early 1960s.

“As youth, we’ve inherited a large set of challenges and we should be at the decision-making table,” Dela Cruz said.

“Even when I was student council president at Miles Macdonell (Collegiate), I found the big issue was apathy. I was really trying to motivate folks about politics and the actual change they can make if they cast a vote. Now they can see me.”

Dela Cruz also served as president of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union and has been working for L’Arche, a non-profit organization operating group homes and helping with employment for adults living with disabilities.

Mike Moroz was able to achieve what many would have thought impossible: an NDP victory in an affluent riding which has swung between the Liberal and PC parties for decades. He defeated longtime Liberal MLA Jon Gerrard in River Heights, and said he did so by working hard, going door to door for a year and a half after his nomination in May 2022.

“I wore through 10 pairs of shoes and, if the election had gone on for another week, I would have gone to the 11th one,” he laughed.“It really is kind of incredible, and it is exciting, too, because the path to better is difference. Having fresh people and fresh ideas come in is good.”

Moroz spent most of his career in education, as a high school theatre teacher on Vancouver Island before working two years at Sisler High School and another two at Sargent Park School.

He said he never really thought about whether he would win while he was campaigning.

“I believe everything is impossible until it isn’t,” Moroz said.

“I found this was a community which is so engaged and involved, and they really needed to come to the table as part of the policy decisions in a way they couldn’t before. … Advocacy is great and necessary in a democracy, but at some point you want that advocacy turned into progress.”

Tracy Schmidt, a labour-relations officer for the Winnipeg Association of Public Services Officers and a labour and employment law lawyer, now represents Rossmere for the NDP after defeating two-term Tory MLA Andrew Mickelfield.

Schmidt said she has lived in North Kildonan her entire life, and knows and lives the issues of the people around her.

Having three children, aged 13 to seven, “I’ve spent the past 13 years of my adult life struggling to find child care, struggling to afford child care, and also have struggles with the public education system,” she said. “I feel like I’m the average Manitoban — I understand the needs of residents.

“I think the voters were clear that they were looking for new voices and new vision.”

But the NDP isn’t the only party with new faces.

On the other side of the floor, the eight new Tories include Kathleen Cook, who succeeded longtime Tory MLA Myrna Driedger in Roblin, and Lauren Stone, the new representative for Midland, located just outside Winnipeg in an area which includes LaSalle.

“I’m so grateful to the people of Charleswood and Headingley for putting their trust in me,” Cook said.

“I live in Charleswood, and I think that resonated with people. Myrna Driedger lived here, too. She was our MLA for so long and I know she leaves big shoes to fill, but I think I’m up for the job.”

Cook, who represented nearly 10,000 businesses across four provinces in her job as provincial director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said she knows she will be sitting in the Opposition side of the legislative chamber, but she won’t be quiet.

“The role of Opposition is important,” she said. “I plan to be a strong voice for small business in the province, and also for the people of Charleswood and Headingley.”

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Stone, who has worked in agri-food and manufacturing, including for Manitoba Beef Producers and Cargill before starting her own consulting company, said “I’m still smiling” about her victory.

“I can’t wait to start working,” she said. “Obviously, the province-wide vote wasn’t what we hoped for, but I look forward to holding the NDP to account.”

Stone, who has two children, aged four and three, said she will work hard to make sure the province stays competitive and to encourage young people to spend their lives and careers here.

“I want young people to stay in Manitoba,” she said. “And if they are like me and went to university elsewhere (she graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston), I want them to come back like I did.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin 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.