The NDP’s Amanda Lathlin won more than 50 per cent of the votes cast in The Pas by-election Tuesday to fill the vacancy left when former MLA Frank Whitehead stepped down last year.
But less than a quarter of eligible voters bothered to fill out a ballot.
Lathlin follows in the footsteps of her father, the late Oscar Lathlin, who was elected as The Pas MLA five times.
She received 1,557 of 2,757 votes cast, nearly twice as many as Progressive Conservative candidate Jacob Nasekapow, who got 817 votes.
Inez Vystrcil-Spence, the Liberal candidate, received 369 votes.
“I like to win and we didn’t and the NDP did,” PC leader Brian Pallister told reporters.
Better protection
The Saskatchewan government says new legislation will soon update protections and expand the ability of police to help victims of violence and abuse.
The new Victims of Interpersonal Violence Act replaces The Victims of Domestic Violence Act.
Changes in the new Act include extended non-contact provisions to prohibit contact at a victim’s school or workplace in the case of an emergency intervention order.
The Act also includes prohibitions on electronic communication between parties, and adds harassment and deprivation of necessities as prohibited forms of interpersonal violence.
“This update was necessary to ensure police and the justice system continue to have the tools needed to protect those living with interpersonal violence,” said Justice Minister and Attorney General Gordon Wyant.
Raise allowance
Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives continue to advocate for the immediate increase to the rental allowance portion of Employment and Income Assistance (EIA) to 75 percent of median market value.
The NDP government has so far refused to raise the rental allowance.
“Those struggling to find money for food and clothing are struggling today and we need to help them today,” said jobs and the economy critic Heather Stefanson.
More coverage
Three drugs to support people with hepatitis C are among 69 new drugs now covered under Manitoba’s pharmacare program.
Among the other new drugs added to the formulary is Adempas, used for inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, when blood vessels are blocked or narrowed with recurring blood clots.
