The current MLA for Flin Flon, Tom Lindsey, hosted a pancake breakfast at the United Steelworkers [USW] Local 7106 offices on Main Street July 20. The NDP provincial representative is gearing up his campaign to be re-elected Sept. 10.
“A person in Winnipeg can cover their constituency in the course of an evening,” he said.
“Logistically, it’s $6,000 to fly to Tadoule Lake for a couple hours. It takes a couple of days drive to Lynn Lake to spend some time there, and then drive back. It’s time, it’s money, but those people are as entitled to representation the same as a person from Flin Flon. Now that the riding has expanded to include Cross Lake, Norway House, it just makes it that much more of a challenge to get there, but again, it’s important to get there.”
Another issue facing candidates in the provincial election is the planned October federal election. Lindsey said it’s putting a strain on the plans for his campaign.
“I work well with Niki [Ashton], our federal MP,” Lindsey said.
“So normally, I help with her campaigns, and she would help with mine. But now, we’re both campaigning at the same time. It adds another level of complexity, particularly when you talk to people.”
It’s not just money and attention provincial candidates are competing with their federal counterparts for. It’s also volunteers.
“They’re going to get turned out, because there’s so many elections going on all at the same time,” Lindsey said of his volunteers.
“Just making sure that you have people to go knock on doors, people to put signs up people to do this, people to do that - It’s going to be more of a challenge. But we’re up for it.”
A Wilfrid Laurier and McGill University 2015 study examined what is rapidly becoming a prominent issue in politics across North America.
“Our results show a clear division according to place of residence, even after controlling for a host of individual- level characteristics,” the study’s abstract reads. “We argue that recognition of this rural-suburban-urban division is an important and often overlooked aspect of understanding Canadian political preferences and political behaviour more generally.”
Lindsey said he sees those kind of results in Manitoba.
“I think you’re going to see that trend really pick up this election,” he said of the urban-rural divide.
“The North has been NDP almost 50 years... So I think there is a split between the rural, the inner city, and the North. It does make a complex challenge for a party to win all those different constituencies.”
Lindsey linked issues in the bigger constituencies in Manitoba to issues facing northern ridings.
“Just winning the North isn’t going to win elections,” he said.
“So you need to focus on things that are happening in Winnipeg, and a lot of those things that happen in Winnipeg, because it is the major city in Manitoba, affect people in the North.”
Lindsey pointed to potential solutions found in Manitoba’s provincial neighbours to help northern issues gain more traction in legislature. He said the electoral commission’s decision to allow a 10 per cent variation in population between ridings should be increased to help give northern residents stronger representation.
“We could have just moved some things around and kept five northern voices, five northern constituencies,” he said.
“The commissioners this time decided they had to hold hard and fast the representation by population. We lost one northern constituency. In northern Saskatchewan, I think they allow a 25 per cent variance. Northern Ontario did some things recognizing the challenges they had that allowed a variance in the numbers. There’s some pretty simple things you can do that have been through the constitutional challenge.”
Lindsey said he works hard to make his concerns known in caucus meetings, but sometimes finds challenges relaying concerns to Winnipeg based MLAs.
“I know when I talk at our caucus meetings, that Wab Kinew, our leader, is always going to look at me when he’s talking about an issue and say, ‘Okay, go, Tom, because you’re going to talk about how this affects the North,’” he said.
“He’s understanding that issues in the north aren’t the same as they are in Winnipeg, they don’t affect people the same. So he’s willing to listen to what’s happening in the north. That’s where we need strong voices in our caucus and in the legislature to make sure those issues get the attention they need.”
Manitobans across the province will head to the polls on Sept. 10. Voters in Flin Flon will be choosing between Lindsey, Progressive Conservative candidate Theresa Wride, Manitoba Liberal Party candidate James Lindsay and Green Party candidate
Saara Murnick.
