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. The New Democrats 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.
Voters will go to the polls on June 18.
3 decades of legal experience
Pinsky is seeking elected office after serving as a lawyer for more than three decades. He was called to the bar in 1993, appointed to the King’s Counsel in 2023, and served as an adjudicator on the Manitoba Human Rights Commission under both PC and NDP governments.
The family lawyer has also founded an association dedicated to helping individuals resolve their family law disputes outside the court system.
Pinsky, who is Jewish, has told supporters that the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 led him to run for office.
In an interview Thursday, Pinsky said he asked five other people in the riding with a sizeable Jewish contingent to consider running, and two of them declined because they were concerned about the anti-Semitism they and their families would face.
“To me, that’s unacceptable for all,” Pinsky said.
He said he’s grateful that party members understood how important that message is “not just for the Jewish community, but entire community that nobody be afraid to run.”
Pinsky added NDP cabinet ministers have been silent about the “rampant hate” going on, but he said there’s a “wide buffet of issues” Manitoba must also contend with, ranging from the state of the economy to the health-care system and safety in neighbourhoods like Osborne Village, once a “jewel in Winnipeg’s crown.”
“We have to bring people together and grow the amazing capital assets we have here, which are the people of Manitoba,” he said. “There’s lots to do and I’m ready to do it.”
He said he’s scheduled to fly back to Winnipeg this coming Tuesday, but will look to book an earlier flight.
“We don’t have any voters here where I am,” he said, chuckling, “but we’ll do whatever we can.”
Other candidates in the Tuxedo byelection are nurse Carla Compton for the NDP, foster parent Jamie Pfau for the Manitoba Liberals and Green Party Leader Janine Gibson.