NDP casts eyes on vacant Spruce Woods seat

Premier Wab Kinew says he wants to see more rural NDP MLAs elected, but stopped short of revealing when he’ll call a byelection for Spruce Woods.

The western Manitoba seat long-held by the Tories was vacated in March by Grant Jackson, who successfully ran for the Conservatives in the federal election.

Kinew, who was in the electoral district Friday for a funding announcement, said the NDP will field a candidate there when it is time.

“I’m asking rural Manitoba to send more people to sit with our team on our side of the legislative chamber,” the premier told a crowd at Oak Lake, 52 kilometres west of Brandon.

“We want people to know we’re investing in the future of the province,” he said, touting a flurry of government investments in the Westman region in recent weeks.

The Progressive Conservatives accused the NDP of “buying votes” ahead of the byelection that must be called by Sept. 24. Under Elections Manitoba rules, when the writ of election drops, a government communications blackout begins.

“It’s very curious to me that in the last several weeks before a blackout period before a byelection, the premier has made four significant announcements in Spruce Woods and Westman,” said Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen.

“It’s akin to buying votes, in my opinion,” said the PC justice critic and former Brandon Police Service chief.

On Friday, the premier announced $95,000 for an aeration system for Oak Lake.

On Thursday, the province announced $500,000 for Brandon’s Spruce Woods Housing Co-Op.

On Wednesday, the province announced $19.7 million to rehabilitate Oak Lake Dam.

“That’s all in Spruce Woods’ district,” Balcaen said. “Before that, there was crickets from this government, with anything to do with Spruce Woods and more so anything in rural Manitoba.”

Standing near Oak Lake’s shore Friday, Kinew told attendees that, when elected to its majority win, his NDP government indeed remembered rural Manitoba, including cutting the provincial fuel tax and reopening the Carberry hospital emergency department.

Kinew said he wants to end the Western Canadian urban-rural political divide.

“I want our province to be united. I think it would be a shame if we just kind of throw up our hands and say, ‘That’s the way things are,’” the premier said.

“I think it’s incumbent on people in government to listen to the concerns of people from all geographic regions and do their best to bring that to the table,” he told the crowd.

“When the byelection comes, yes, we are going to bring a candidate forward from the area who we want you to send to the legislature … Somebody to sit at the decision making table, rather than to just chirp from the sideline.”

That won’t be easy in Spruce Woods, which is considered a safe Tory seat.

“They usually win by 20 or 30 or 40 points,” said University of Manitoba political studies Prof. Christopher Adams. “I would say that the NDP would be very surprised if they won that constituency.”

He noted, however, there have been recent upsets with the New Democrats winning so-called safe seats.

Carla Compton took Tuxedo — Tory blue for decades — in a 2024 byelection after PC premier Heather Stefanson lost the 2023 election and vacated the seat. Long-time Liberal MLA for River Heights Jon Gerrard lost in that election to the NDP’s Mike Moroz.

“I think there’s not enough of a backlash to the PCs happening in Spruce Woods, as was happening in Tuxedo,” Adams said. “It’s not a great time for the PCs in rural Manitoba, but I think I’d be very surprised if there were an upset in Spruce Woods.”

The PCs are languishing in the polls and their new leader, Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan, didn’t have strong support in Spruce Woods during the leadership race earlier this year. His opponent, Wally Daudrich, won a greater share of votes in the electoral district.

Two candidates have thus far registered with Elections Manitoba to run in the byelection. The PCs nominated longtime party volunteer Colleen Robbins; Brandon teacher Stephen Reid will carry the banner for the Liberals.

“I think any seat is open for any political party,” said Balcaen. “We have to constantly put in the effort and the work with our constituents and you know we’ll continue to do that … We work for every vote we get.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca