Manitoba’s social gathering leaders stepped up their assaults over the weekend in a bid to achieve momentum heading into the ultimate full week of the provincial election marketing campaign.
NDP Chief Wab Kinew pledged to enhance freeway security within the province’s north, in addition to fund extra workers and tools at well being services within the area, throughout a marketing campaign cease in Thompson over the weekend.
Kinew on Sunday accused Progressive Conservative Chief Heather Stefanson of turning her again on northern Manitobans by cuts and closures, which he stated pressure individuals to attend longer and drive additional to get the healthcare they want.
His guarantees included restoring birthing companies to northern Manitoba, together with in Pimicikamak Cree Nation and Norway Home, in addition to including an MRI machine to the Thompson Hospital and enhancing security on Freeway 6 with extra relaxation stops.
The Tories, in the meantime, stepped up assaults on Kinew, whereas on the identical time promising to re-introduce laws to increase liquor gross sales within the province.
In a newspaper advert Saturday, the PCs stated Stefanson would “stand agency” on its refusal to go looking a landfill for the stays of two Indigenous girls for well being and security causes.
The advert additionally promised “stronger parental rights” and “greater pay cheques” whereas claiming “Kinew and the NDP have zero expertise operating authorities.”
“If that does not scare you, it ought to,” the PC advert stated.
Dougald Lamont and the Manitoba Liberal Social gathering on Sunday introduced they’d improve funding to the Manitoba Arts Council by $20 million and improve helps to Sport Manitoba.
Lamont, in a information launch, referred to as the organizations “a number of the most essential cultural establishments in Manitoba — those we love.” However he stated for years there was no improve in working funding beneath the NDP or the PCs.
The election shall be held Oct. 3. Advance voting started Saturday and continues till Sept. 30.
Throughout final Thursday’s televised leaders debate, Stefanson questioned Kinew’s promise to go looking the Prairie Inexperienced Landfill north of Winnipeg, the place the stays of two Indigenous girls — Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — are believed to be.
A feasibility examine stated a search of the landfill is feasible, though it could don’t have any assure of success and searchers would face hazards from asbestos and different poisonous materials.
Kinew responded to the query by accusing Stefanson of making an attempt to divide individuals with wedge points, saying he would “stability respect and dignity for the households whereas additionally being accountable with the general public purse.”
PC candidate Kevin Klein introduced Sunday, with a Costco within the background, that his social gathering would carry again a invoice to permit Manitobans to purchase alcohol in additional locations — laws that was blocked earlier this 12 months by the NDP.
One of many payments would have paved the way in which for a pilot challenge during which liquor could be out there in additional retail environments corresponding to nook shops or grocery shops. The second invoice would have allowed personal beer distributors and specialty wine shops to promote a wider vary of alcohol merchandise.
“Wab Kinew’s NDP cannot block this without end. It is what Manitobans need,” Klein stated Sunday.
The NDP has beforehand stated it delayed the laws as a result of it felt the difficulty wanted extra examine and there have been issues about alcohol being out there on the market in nook shops corresponding to 7-Eleven, the place households store.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Sept. 25, 2023.
