Voters mull choices in Kildonan-St. Paul

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This article was published 01/10/2019 (2197 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Curtis Fehr says he doesn’t know much about the Conservative candidate in his home riding of Kildonan-St. Paul, but knows exactly why he’ll be voting Tory: “It’s not Justin Trudeau.”

Kildonan-St. Paul was solidly Conservative from its inception in 2003 until 2015, when MP Joy Smith decided not to run again. MaryAnn Mihychuk of the Liberals snatched the seat from Conservative challenger Jim Bell in 2015, and will try to fend off Tory candidate Raquel Dancho on Oct. 21.

Fehr’s wife, Jennifer, said she’s concerned Trudeau hasn’t resolved a political standoff with China that’s hurting Canada’s canola industry.

“Even though we’re not farming anymore, the majority of our friends and family are farmers, so that’s something that’s still very important to us,” she said Tuesday afternoon outside a grocery store in Birds Hill.

Conservative party member Donna Storsley of Birds Hill will also cast her vote for Dancho (adding she is a relative, although she doesn’t know her personally).

“I actually think Raquel is going to get it,” she said. “We were at the nomination meeting, she seemed very experienced for her age, powerful speaker, she’s a dynamo actually. And I actually think she’s going to win it.”

Marlow Reimer is a hairdresser in East St. Paul, and sometimes chats about politics with her clients, who, she said, mostly lean Conservative. She’ll be voting Liberal, citing the party’s stances on matters such as human rights, the environment and social issues.

Even so, Reimer didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic about voting for the Grits under Trudeau.

“When you vote, I think you’ve got to look at everybody and just pick the lesser of all the evils, you know?”

In Winnipeg, outside the Garden City Square shopping centre at the southern tip of the Kildonan-St. Paul riding, Alan Veness said he’d cast his vote strategically for the Liberals because he’s opposed to the Conservatives.

If Canada allowed a single transferable vote, Veness said he’d prefer to back the Green party or the New Democrats. But for now, he doesn’t see either actually forming government.

“I can’t take the chance that the Conservatives get in because I wanted to make a point… If I vote Green, it’s a protest vote. They’re not going to win. And I know they’ll never win if you think that way, but they’ve got to show they can get closer, for me.”

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Meanwhile, Ron, who declined to share his last name or how he planned to vote, said he thinks Canadians have had enough of the Liberals, and expects voters to turn Kildonan-St. Paul Tory blue once again come Oct. 21.

“Just because they don’t like Trudeau,” he said.

“I mean, if you listen to half the stuff he ever says, you sit there, shake your head.”

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israel