Tuxedo byelection has all 4 Manitoba parties eyeing Winnipeg constituency that has only ever voted Tory blue
CBC
In the 43 years since the formation of Tuxedo as a provincial electoral district, voters in the affluent Winnipeg constituency have only elected two MLAs, both of them Progressive Conservatives who served as premier.
The first was Gary Filmon. The second was Heather Stefanson. Together, they won 13 general elections or byelections in Tuxedo.
Only two of those contests were close.
On election night in 1988, Liberal candidate Jasper McKee came within 124 votes of defeating Filmon, the PC leader and premier designate. McKee's strong showing was bolstered by the popularity of Liberal leader Sharon Carstairs, whose party served as the official opposition to a Filmon-led PC minority government.
In 2023, the NDP narrowly missed capturing Tuxedo. NDP candidate Larissa Ashdown came within 268 votes of defeating Stefanson, whose personal popularity had plummeted following six previous victories where her average margin of victory was 2,372 votes.
Ashdown did not appear to campaign vigorously in that race. But now that Stefanson has resigned and the PCs remain without a full-time leader, the New Democrats have deployed significant numbers of volunteers in Tuxedo in an effort to win the June 18 byelection in a constituency they have never represented.
Those volunteers are trying to identify all the NDP-friendly votes they can in Tuxedo in an effort to elect Carla Compton, a hemodialysis nurse who used to live in the constituency and ran there previously in 2019, when she finished third behind Stefanson and Liberal candidate Marc Brandson.
Compton, whose candidacy was announced the same day as Premier Wab Kinew called the Tuxedo byelection, said she doesn't expect to sit at the cabinet table if she is elected on Tuesday.
"I can bring my experience from the front lines of health care to the government's table, even in the capacity as a backbencher," Compton said in an interview on the Charleswood side of Tuxedo constituency.
Compton said she benefits from Premier Wab Kinew's personal popularity, which remains strong eight months after the 2023 general election.
At the same time, Stefanson's departure has deprived the NDP of the greatest asset they had last fall in Tuxedo — a very unpopular incumbent.
The PC candidate in the byelection, family lawyer Lawrence Pinsky, is trying to motivate conservative voters by drawing attention away from Kinew to his party's traditional ideological positions, which include a focus on public safety and provincial finances.
In phone messages and campaign materials, he also has attempted to portray the NDP as providing shelter to "extremists" who seek to defund police or espouse lopsided ideological takes on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"I see a provincial government that's really separating people, that's doing terribly on the economy. I see a world that's gone a little bit upside down," Pinsky said in an interview outside his campaign office in North River Heights. "I see Manitoba having a brilliant set of capital assets — its people — and it's being mismanaged."
Experts are constantly warning the public to be on guard for new and increasingly convincing scams, but police say the holiday shopping season is especially fraught with risk.
A surgeon who used to work at Flin Flon's hospital says residents in the northwestern Manitoba city have been left in a precarious situation after more than five years without general surgery services.
Moubarak Bokhit Ali's memories of his home country of Sudan are punctuated by flashes of violence.
The man behind the Moose Jaw health centre that has claimed “a 100 per cent success rate in stopping the progression and in restoring function of people with ALS” says a recent CBC story about his company is evidence that he is seen as “a direct threat to the ALS drug industry.”
The Neighbour to Neighbour Centre’s trans and non-binary grocery program, which offers free food and household products to community members once a month, began with a simple question: how do we get free menstrual products to trans people without being awkward?
Bill Van Vugt is living a life that's unlike most other people his age, and one which has seen him turn a longtime hobby into championship gold.
The provincial government is taking steps toward improving Alberta's lucrative sand and gravel industry.
As medical labs across Ontario remain understaffed, one medical association is calling on the province to expand labs’ capacity for student placements by funding positions to train them.
The year wrapping up means it's getting closer to tax season, and the federal Community Volunteer Income Tax Program will once again be offering free filing services for Islanders with modest incomes.
It's not so easy to remove a politician from office between elections in Canada.
Natasha Martin-Mitchell says creating art gives her a sense of calmness that acts as a medicine during stressful times.
Gabriel Vilardi scored twice and star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves in his first game back from injury to power the Jets to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday that snapped Winnipeg's three-game losing skid.
Alberta’s auditor general Doug Wylie says his office's budget will be $1.5 million short next fiscal year.