NDP contender in Spruce Woods says health care, infrastructure are his priorities

BRANDON — Premier Wab Kinew said he has faith Ray Berthelette can bring Spruce Woods into the NDP fold.

“We think we have a chance,” Kinew said after announcing Berthelette’s candidacy Thursday in Brandon. “We’ve got a great candidate that we believe in.”

Kinew, accompanied by several NDP MLAs, made the announcement to about 100 party supporters at the Monterey Estates on Brandon’s North Hill.

Berthelette, a Brandon real estate agent and former executive assistant to Brandon East MLA Glen Simard, said he has knocked on 400 doors and spoken to voters.

“I will work hard, very hard, to be the voice of this constituency,” he said. “We are already getting to work, meeting people across the riding.”

The NDP is the last major party to announce a candidate, as both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals announced theirs in early June. The Green party said it won’t field a candidate.

The PCs chose Colleen Robbins from Souris as their candidate and the Liberals selected Brandon teacher Stephen Reid.

In a scrum after the announcement, Berthelette said he believes he has a shot at winning the Progressive Conservative stronghold.

In 2023, the PCs won it with 61 per cent of the vote, which is its lowest share of the vote since the constituency was created in 2011. Grant Jackson won that election and stepped down in March to run federally. His resignation triggered the need for a byelection, which has still not been called and must be held no later than Sept. 16.

The PCs have have won the seat with as much as 73 per cent of the vote.

Kinew said the NDP will take the byelection seriously.

“We’ve got a byelection in a beautiful part of Manitoba, and so we’re going to do our part to show people we’re serious about it, and then it’ll be up to the voter to decide.”

The NDP, which has a lock on Winnipeg seats, wants to add the rural seat; it also holds seats in Dauphin and Brandon East.

It would be “saying that we’re a government that is serious for every region of the province, and to let people know that we are listening to them and we’re representing them,” Kinew said.

Berthelette, who didn’t give his age when asked, saying “that’s a stupid question,” said if he’s elected to the legislature he will focus on key issues such as health care, infrastructure and food prices.

“I want to see the people of Spruce Woods get what all the rest of the province has been getting — infrastructure, access to ministers, responses to questions when they have them, that kind of stuff,” he said.

“We want to have health care working better in rural communities, so that way they will have the same type of access they do in Winnipeg.”

— Brandon Sun