With Manitoba poised to make election history, front-runners contend with sexism, racism

While Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson already became Manitoba's first female premier when she won her party's leadership race in 2021, a victory for her party on Oct. 3 would make her the first woman to ever win the role in a general election.

Meanwhile, if NDP Leader Wab Kinew wins, he would become the only First Nations person to ever hold the title of premier in Manitoba.

With polls suggesting the two leading parties are tied in popularity, all eyes are now on their leaders — a level of scrutiny that's heightened because neither candidate is what people may think of as a stereotypical politician, says an expert who studies perceptions of politicians who belong to marginalized groups.

Joanie Bouchard, an assistant professor at Quebec's Sherbrooke University, said those kinds of leaders often become representative of their identities, whether they want to or not.

In Stefanson and Kinew's case, both say they're running campaigns for all Manitobans and don't appear to want to speak openly about what unique challenges they may face because of who they are.

But that doesn't mean those obstacles don't exist. Bouchard said voters often have an image of someone in their head based on stereotypes and can be surprised when a candidate acts in a way that doesn't match that preconceived idea — reacting with anything from interest to disappointment.

And while some people may not believe those stereotypes, those ideas may still colour their view of a candidate, she said.

"We can have the conscious thoughts that come in and say, 'wait … that's not appropriate.' But often the first things that will come to mind, very sadly, are stereotypical," Bouchard said. 

In many ways, politics is still seen as a man's game — meaning there are often extra expectations for women running for office, said Kelly Saunders, an associate political science professor at southwestern Manitoba's Brandon University.

In Stefanson's case, those expectations have at times been conflicting — she was expected to bring a more conciliatory approach than her predecessor, Brian Pallister, but to still prove she's tough enough to be premier, said Saunders. That's made the PC leader, whose party is vying for a third consecutive term, an easy target for criticism, she said.

"We often say it's a little bit of the 'Cinderella syndrome' when you're a woman in politics — that you're never quite good enough," said Saunders.

One example, she said, is in a recent video — posted just after a Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries strike ended and a strike by Manitoba Public Insurance workers began — in which Stefanson told Manitoba's largest public service union that while she'd like to say yes to everything, "sometimes the answer has to be no."

WATCH | 'Sometimes the answer has to be no,' Stefanson says in video posted Aug. 28:

That comes off as an attempt to make the premier seem tough on the labour issue in response to gendered expectations for politicians, said Saunders.