The Pas race suffers from poor showing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/09/2009 (6160 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TURNOUT was reportedly low in a key delegate-selection meeting Sunday in The Pas that at least two NDP leadership hopefuls were counting on to bolster their chances of becoming premier.

At press time, the ballots in The Pas were still being counted. Former training and trade minister Andrew Swan and former intergovernmental affairs minister Steve Ashton were widely expected to be in a tight race for the 120 delegates up for grabs, though former finance minister Greg Selinger was wooing voters there over the weekend, too.

But turnout at Sunday afternoon’s delegate meetings in the town and in the Norway House and Cross Lake First Nations was low. Only about 10 per cent of the riding’s 1,200 New Democrats turned out to vote.

Even once the ballots are counted it could be difficult to determine which candidate earned the most delegates. Some delegates reportedly had their names on all three slates.

The NDP is just past the halfway point of meetings held in each of the 57 ridings to elect delegates that will vote at the leadership convention on Oct. 17.

The contest in The Pas was seen as a clash between Ashton, the Thompson MLA who is popular up north, and Swan, the rookie who won the endorsement of The Pas MLA Frank Whitehead and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans.

— Welch