Redhead declared victorious in Thompson

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/06/2022 (1360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP has declared victory in the Thompson byelection.

After prominent Indigenous leader Eric Redhead pulled far ahead of Progressive Conservative candidate Charlotte Larocque in the vote-rich city of Thompson and the town of Churchill, the party said he will become the next MLA for the vast northern constituency. 

With the final results yet to be released, just before midnight, with 52 of 53 voting areas reporting, Redhead was ahead with 1,469 votes to Larocque’s 575. 

Redhead, the former Shamattawa First Nation chief and former Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs acting grand chief, will take the seat formerly held by New Democrat Danielle Adams, who was killed in a highway accident in December.

“I’m honoured that northerners chose me to carry on the legacy of Danielle Adams,” Redhead said Tuesday night. “Like her, I’m going to fight for the health care you need, the opportunities you deserve and a life you can afford,” said the MLA-elect, who visited every community in the sprawling constituency that covers 134,661 square kilometres.

On the campaign trail, the former health-care aide who lives in Thompson with two of his four children, said highway maintenance and the lack of health care services — including the closure of Thompson’s foot care clinic — are just some of the issues that he plans to address.

Larocque, a former Thompson chamber of commerce president, told voters it was in their interest to elect a PC candidate who belongs to the party in power and could work for them. Right before calling the byelection, the provincial government joined the federal government and Thompson’s civic government to announce $15 million for a new swimming pool complex in the city.

In the end, most Thompson voters went for Redhead and the NDP, which now represents every northern seat in Manitoba.

“Eric is a leader who cares about this community and its future,” said NDP Leader Wab Kinew, who joined Redhead in Thompson. “I know he will be an excellent MLA, who focuses on fixing the damage the PCs caused and making life more affordable for northerners,” Kinew said in a prepared statement.

The PCs faced a tough opponent in the traditional NDP seat, one pollster said.

“I think that the chances going into this byelection were probably pretty slim for the Tories,” said Probe Research principal Mary Agnes Welch.

“The north has always been reasonably steady NDP territory except for a blip in the 2016 election, and I think they have a fairly strong candidate” in Redhead, said Welch. “I just think the winds would not be in the Tories’ favour. They’re not in the Tories favour, provincewide, and certainly not in the north in a riding like Thompson, I think,” said Welch.

Thompson, however, is unlike other constituencies in the province and shouldn’t be seen as any kind of political bellwether.

“We always look at byelections as being harbingers of things to come and I think that was certainly a reasonable thing to do in Fort Whyte but Thompson is a different beast. It’s traditionally strong NDP territory, and it’s got such a vibrant Indigenous community, who might have a bit of of animosity towards the Tories, naturally.”

In Thompson, nearly 59 per cent of the population identified as Indigenous in a 2018 Manitoba Bureau of Statistics report. The NDP had a well-known Indigenous candidate running for a party with an Indigenous leader.

“I think having the opportunity to vote for an Indigenous candidate, plus for a party with an Indigenous leader, probably also factors in,” said Welch. “If the Tories really do badly in the north, I don’t know if we can automatically say, well, that’s because they’re going to do terribly in the next provincial election. I think it doesn’t help, but the north is a unique beast, for sure.”

With the resignation of Scott Fielding, the PC MLA for Kirkfield Park, and Redhead taking the Thompson seat for the New Democrats, there will be 18 NDP MLAs, 35 PCs and three Liberals in the legislature.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca