Popular teacher’s NDP acclamation sets up good contest

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This article was published 19/06/2015 (4066 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A popular history teacher will carry the banner for the NDP in Winnipeg South Centre this fall, adding a bit of intrigue to what is expected to be one of the most interesting contests in the election.

Matt Henderson, a social studies teacher at St. John’s-Ravenscourt who won a Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2013, was acclaimed as the NDP candidate Wednesday night.

He will go up against incumbent Conservative MP Joyce Bateman, Liberal Jim Carr and Andrew Park from the Green party.

The NDP has consistently finished third in the riding over the last five elections, but NDP sources are excited about the addition of Henderson to their lineup.

The riding was one of the closest races in the country in 2011, when Bateman, a former Liberal, bested Liberal MP Anita Neville by 722 votes.

Carr, a former Liberal MLA and Free Press editorial board member who founded the Manitoba Business Council, said he welcomes “anyone who wants to put their name forward.”

Carr has been campaigning for more than a year, the riding association is well-financed, and there are lots of volunteers helping out. About 80 showed up recently for a volunteer-appreciation barbecue, said one source.

As well, Carr is a right-leaning Liberal, a businessman who will be as likely to draw Conservative votes from Bateman.

“I think it’s admirable for anybody to put their name on signs and pound them into their friends’ lawns,” Bateman said.

Henderson said he’s running because he wants to make a difference for his students and his own children. He has a seven-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son.

“I’m doing it for my kids and other people’s kids and to make meaningful change,” Henderson said.

He said he isn’t going to take a leave from teaching to campaign, so will have to fit door-knocking and campaign events around his teaching schedule.

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But he said he is careful to keep his politics separate from his job, shutting down any student or even fellow teachers who want to talk to him about it at school.

And he said he has always been upfront about his political leanings.

“I tell my students every day I’m a socialist,” he said.

Henderson, 39, will be on the ballot in the southern Winnipeg riding for the second time, but it is the first time it won’t be a project for his Grade 9 students. In 2011, he ran as an independent candidate as part of a class project. He got 218 votes.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca