Family lawyer learns he'll be running for Tories in Tuxedo byelection via FaceTime from Israel

Lawrence Pinsky was sleeping in Israel the moment it was announced Progressive Conservative members had placed their trust in him to win the upcoming Tuxedo byelection.

Pinsky was selected as the PC candidate at a nomination meeting Thursday night, despite the family lawyer being fast asleep half a world away from the Varsity View Community Centre.

He had travelled to Israel after the death of a family friend. He made the trip before the governing NDP caught their rivals off-guard by calling the byelection earlier than many political observers expected.

Back in Winnipeg, his family and supporters cheered and hugged each other as Pinsky was announced as the Tories' hopeful.

His sons immediately called their dad over FaceTime, waking him up. It was after 4 a.m. in Israel. 

"You did it," Raffey Levitt-Pinsky, Lawrence's son, said, as other supporters crowded around the phone.

Levitt-Pinsky then quipped his dad, who was rising out of bed and still shirtless, wasn't ready for the limelight. 

"Dad, you don't dress up for the occasion?" he joked.

Dressed moments later in a buttoned-up shirt, Pinsky said in an interview through FaceTime it was an honour to earn the support of PC members. He defeated real estate agent Lori Shenkarow and former Tory MLA Shannon Martin in the contested nomination. 

"Everyone is a proud Progressive Conservative who was working there — they're amazing people, their hearts were in it, their souls were in it, and I think we're going to take Tuxedo the way it ought to be: make it Progressive Conservative," he said.

Tuxedo has historically been a PC stronghold, with its two most recent MLAs, Heather Stefanson and Gary Filmon, being elevated to the premiership, but the party's longstanding grasp on the seat was loosened in the 2023 election when Stefanson's margin of victory was less than 300 votes. 

NDP Premier Wab Kinew said recently he wished he spent time during the election canvassing in the area.

The NDP is now acting like it believes Tuxedo is winnable. It called the byelection on Monday, before any other party had a candidate in place.

The PCs responded by moving up their nomination meeting by nearly two weeks.