Carr reflects on byelection win

Winnipeg

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This article was published 28/06/2023 (1082 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On June 19, Liberal Party of Canada candidate Ben Carr was elected the member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre.

Carr won the byelection with 55.5 per cent of the votes cast — 14, 278 in total — in a crowded race which featured 48 candidates (42 of whom ran as part of an election reform campaign).

“This is a new chapter,” Carr said on June 22. “And one that I’m excited to be a part of.”

Before politics, Carr was a school principal at Maples Met High School, as well as the divisional principal in the Seven Oaks School Division. He is currently vice-president of Indigenous Strategy Alliance, an Indigenous-owned management business in Winnipeg.

Carr is following in the footsteps of his late father, Jim, who died in December 2022 following a battle with cancer. Jim had represented Winnipeg South Centre for the Liberals since 2015, and learned of his diagnosis shortly after his last re-election in October 2019.

On election night, Carr, sobered by emotion, addressed the crowd at his campaign headquarters with a bittersweet speech that touched on the responsibility of taking his father’s place as MP so soon after his death.

“I feel the void of his loss profoundly — over the last few weeks in particular,” he said.

Now, though, Carr said he wants to look ahead, using what his father taught him in his role as a new leader with a different background.

“I come at this from different perspectives,” he said. “I’m obviously from a different generation, I come from an education background, I have my own sets of experiences that have contributed to my understanding of the world and my values and the things that I want to accomplish.

“He’s very much present in my mind and in my spirit every day. But moving forward, my job is to be a representative for the people of (Winnipeg South Centre) on the basis of what their needs are today and who I am and what I hope to bring to a leadership role and representation role for that in Ottawa.”

As MP, Carr aims to continue prioritizing community, he said, as well as tackle environmental and economic issues with the federal government.

“Priority number one is just establishing that local presence,” he said. “I’m continuing an extension of the campaign, which is to talk to people to get ideas and hear what’s on their minds.”

What’s on the minds of many is affordability, he said.

“We’re going through a difficult period where the cost of living is posing challenges for people … not just in Canada, but around the world,” Carr said. “So continuing to support people through the investments that we’re making, and making sure people are aware of the benefits that they’re receiving that are going to help deal with some of those affordability issues.”

Conservative Party candidate Damir Stipanovic finished second in the riding with 23.7 per cent of the vote. NDP candidate Julia Riddell was third with 14.5 per cent.

“We were the disruptors,” Stipanovic said, as votes were being counted on election. “We came here to disrupt, and that’s what we did … Ben Carr had to work for this.”

In the other Manitoba byelection held June 19, Conservative Branden Leslie won in Portage-Lisgar, earning 64.9 per cent of the vote, well ahead of People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, who earned just 17.2 per cent of ballots cast.