Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh hopes to replicate the Manitoba NDP’s winning ways by defeating a “divisive” Tory opponent with a uniting message of hope.
“The campaign was inspirational across the country,” Singh told some 453 delegates this morning at the Manitoba NDP conventions at the Fairmont Hotel.
“There’s a lot to learn from the work of Premier Kinew and the New Democrat team here in Manitoba,” Singh told reporters after receiving a standing ovation from the party faithful at their first gathering since winning the Oct. 3 election. He promised to fight for workers, win more seats and keep Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives from taking power. They can do that by modelling the Manitoba NDP win over the Progressive Conservatives under former leader Heather Stefanson, Singh said.
“They ran a very ugly campaign that purposely worked to pit neighbour against neighbour,” Singh said, telling reporters it was a “very racist campaign that tried to politicize the deaths of Indigenous women.” Stefanson’s platform included a pledge to “stand firm” against searching for the remains of Indigenous women whom police believe to be buried in a landfill north of Winnipeg.
“The New Democrats came up with a very powerful, unifying campaign and said ‘we’ve got real solutions for the serious problems you’re up against’,” Singh said.
“We want to build on that type of campaigning that’s honest, which fights for people and is inspirational and positive and unifying at a time when there’s a lot of divisions out there… I want to give people hope.”
His federal New Democrats will get their first chance to show whether or not they can beat the Conservatives — who lead in national polls — with a federal byelection looming in Elmwood-Tuxedo. There, NDP incumbent Daniel Blaikie stepped down March 31 to work as Kinew’s senior advisor on intergovernmental affairs.
Singh said he was excited to have two candidates seeking the nomination in that riding — Leila Dance and Leilani Esteban.
The provincial party, meanwhile, called on the party faithful to give their time and money ahead of a Tuxedo byelection due in the next six months after Stefanson resigned her seat last week.
The NDP are focused on taking the wealthy constituency that’s been Tory blue for more than 40 years.
“It can be done,” NDP MLA Mike Moroz (River Heights) told the convention crowd. The well-to-do enclave he represents was considered a safe Liberal or Progressive Conservative seat until Moroz beat Liberal incumbent Jon Gerrard on Oct. 3.
“River Heights is proof that it can,” he said.
“Elections at the end of the day aren’t that complicated,” said Moroz, a former teacher.
”They’re about math — putting boots on the ground in the constituency on a consistent basis,” the rookie MLA said.
“That’s what we did in River Heights. That’s what we need to do in Tuxedo,” said Moroz.
Dates for the Winnipeg byelections have not been announced.
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.