Advance voting for Tuxedo byelection underway

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This article was published 09/06/2024 (503 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tuxedo byelection voters seemed to have the one thing on their minds at advance polls Saturday: change.

“I just think we need a change,” Barb Clendenan, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said.

She said she has voted Tory all her life but is frustrated with the party. She wants the Progressive Conservatives to listen to all voters, not just “one economic group.” She also likes what the NDP is doing so far when it comes to education and health care.

“This riding has been a stronghold for the PCs,” she said. “Perhaps they need to wake up and not be so sure of themselves.”

Gerry Makinson said he has voted Liberal for most of his life. On Saturday, he voted NDP.

Makinson, about to hop on his e-bike outside advance polls at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, said he is disappointed by the Tory approach to “social issues.” He said he hopes his vote for the NDP candidate helps steer Manitoba clear of the right-wing extremism he sees boiling to the surface in the United States.

PC MLA Heather Stefanson represented the constituency for more than 23 years. In 2021, she became party leader and premier after Brian Pallister stepped down. When the PCs lost the election this October, she announced she was stepping down as party leader.

Stefanson announced in April that she was resigning as an MLA. The seat has been vacant since May 6.

The candidates running in the Tuxedo byelection are: Lawrence Pinsky, a family lawyer, for the PCs; Carla Compton, a nurse, for the NDP; Jamie Pfau, the president of the Manitoba Foster Parents’ Association, for the Liberals; and Janine Gibson, who works in organic farming, for the Greens.

Some voters who spoke with the Free Press took issue with Pinksy’s decision to make the war in Gaza a key part of his campaign. Pinksy, who is Jewish, has criticized some NDP MLAs who have referred to the actions of the Israeli government as a “war crime” and “genocide.” Pinksy called such comments “horribly hateful” and said some NDP MLAs support “extremism.”

“That’s a stupid thing to say,” Tom Passey said outside the advance polls. “I think we should all be representing a strict direction toward peace.”

Premier Wab Kinew issued a statement in March calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and for Hamas to be destroyed.

The wealthy Tuxedo constituency, where median income is $92,000, has long been a PC stronghold. But the last election was a tight race. NDP candidate Larissa Ashdown secured 3,700 votes, while Stefanson won with 3,968 votes.

No voters who spoke with the Free Press on Saturday said they were voting PC, but some voters declined to speak with a reporter.

Some said their neighbourhoods were full of orange signs, but others said they had remained blue, as usual.

A Manitoba Elections worker at the Grant Avenue polling station said about 200 people had cast votes by noon.

Advance polls are open until Saturday at the Tuxedo returning office (3525 Roblin Blvd.) and the church (2255 Grant Ave.)

The byelection date is June 18.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca