New Democrats gaining steam in inner city, poll suggests

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This article was published 01/10/2019 (2174 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Voters in Winnipeg Centre appear to be returning to old voting habits, with a recent Probe Research poll indicating the New Democrats are leading in the inner city at the halfway point in the 2019 federal election campaign.

“It’s a very unfortunate selection for Canada as a country. (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau says a lot of nice things, but in action, the Liberals don’t do much different than the Conservatives,” said Fadi Ennab, a 34-year-old who lives in West Broadway.

Ennab said he plans to vote for the NDP — “a party that stands for Indigenous and newcomer issues,” since those are the social service worker’s key concerns.

In 2015, Liberal Robert-Falcon Ouellette ousted Pat Martin, a longtime NDP incumbent who had held Winnipeg Centre since 1997. Ouellette took in the most votes in all but one of the 166 polls in the riding.

The Cree educator’s win was just one sign of a Liberal sweep in which the party took seven of eight seats in Winnipeg.

If a new poll commissioned by the Free Press is any indication, the Liberals won’t see the same success Oct. 21.

Of the 107 survey respondents who live in the city’s core, 42 per cent indicated they plan to cast votes for the NDP; Liberal voters accounted for 31 per cent of respondents.

The Conservatives, Greens and People’s Party trailed behind at 13, 12 and one per cent, respectively.

Ouellette is facing off against NDP candidate Leah Gazan, a human rights activist and member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation in Saskatchewan.

Ryan Dyck (Tories), Andrea Shalay (Greens) and Yogi Henderson (PPC) are also in the running.

“I don’t usually vote for a party, I vote for the person that’s in my constituency that I feel will do the most for me and for the community,” West Broadway resident Martin Kerr said.

The 59-year-old said in this election, the candidate he feels will address his issues of education, policing and poverty is Gazan.

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Those three issues are also priorities for West End resident Ashley Penner. The 23-year-old student at the University of Manitoba said she’s noticed a lot of orange signs in her neighbourhood, but her pros-and-cons list is still in the works, as she waits for the federal parties to make all their announcements.

“Even though you vote, technically, for the person in your riding, I think the leader has a big role to play in that because they tend to direct things and be the face of what you’re voting for,” she said.

Penner said she’s curious about whether the Trudeau government’s scandals will catch up with the party at the polls, although she’s more focused on policies.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.