Reaching voters a challenge for candidates in massive northern Manitoba riding
Health care, cost of living, education, infrastructure among top issues for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski voters
Federal election candidates in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski are racing to reach as many communities as possible before the April 28 election, but in Manitoba's northernmost riding — and its largest by land area — that's posing a challenge during a short campaign.
"We're boots on the ground, literally," said Liberal candidate Rebecca Chartrand, a business owner from Pine Creek First Nation who lives in Winnipeg.
"We've been in our vehicle driving to every community that we can get to," Chartrand told CBC News while door-knocking in Pimicikamak Cree Nation, about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Chartrand previously ran in the riding in the 2015 election, losing in a close race with the NDP's Niki Ashton. Chartrand got 42 per cent of the votes cast (12,575 votes) that year to Ashon's 45 per cent (13,487 votes).
Ashton won the following elections, in 2019 and 2021, by at least 3,100 ballots.
The incumbent NDP candidate said she and her team plan to visit 90 per cent of the communities in the riding during this campaign.
"I've been so proud to be able to fight for my home," said Ashton, who is from Thompson and has represented the riding since 2008.
"This is where I'm from, you know, born and raised. This is where I live with my family. And I see a lot of the challenges first-hand."
Churchill-Keewatinook Aski covers more than 420,000 square kilometres, making it several times larger in area than any other Manitoba riding, but has under 50,000 eligible voters, according to Elections Canada. In the 2021 federal election, voter turnout was just 36 per cent, compared to a provincial average of 76 per cent.
Chartrand said her campaign is focusing on the federal Liberal government's track record, which included $55 million in funding for a new health centre in Pimicikamak that opened in 2023. She's also promising big investments in the region.
"The types of things that we're going to fight for are better roads, better opportunities for employment," she said. "That can help reduce the high cost of living in northern communities."
Grocery prices, housing among top issues
That's a top priority for Leonard Ross, a mental health worker in Pimicikamak, who hasn't decided whether or not he will vote on April 28. But the rising cost of food is a growing concern for him.
He'd like to eat healthy and avoid junk food, but in a community like Pimicikamak, that comes at a very high price, said Ross.
"It's a win or lose kind of thing. When you want to eat healthy, healthy food is very expensive, vegetables and whatnot. Multigrain bread is very expensive," he said.
"It's already very pricey, and then inflation goes up very much, so you can't really do anything about it in the community."
Ashton said the housing crisis in northern Manitoba, especially on First Nations, is another top of mind issue for voters, along with "the lack of infrastructure across the north, the need to invest in health care both in our urban centres as well as First Nations."
Health care is Erica Halcrow's biggest concern. The Pimicikamak member frequently makes a more than eight-hour drive to Winnipeg for medical appointments, and wants something to change.
"I go out for medical, and a lot of times I have issues and I can't address them right away, and I really don't know where to address them," she said.
Health care has improved in recent years, but there's still a lot of work to do, she said.
She said she intends to vote.
"[It's] very important that people go out and vote, because we are … what makes everything. So the vote really matters and counts," she said.
PPC candidate wants moratorium on immigration
Dylan Young, the local candidate for the People's Party of Canada, is making a radically different pitch from the other candidates, and hopes that will inspire young people — particularly young men — to vote for him.
His top issue this election is Canadian identity, and he and his party are calling for a temporary moratorium on immigration to Canada.
In Thompson — the largest city in the riding, with just over 13,000 people — immigrants made up about 13 per cent of the population in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. That was from around seven per cent 10 years earlier.
"We tell them that their immigration here is valuable, that what they have here shouldn't be diminished because of new people that are coming," said Young, who believes a pause on new immigration will help those who are already here.
"This will give our infrastructure and communities time to adapt to what we already have. And then in the future, we can re-evaluate whether we want to increase."
But Young said getting his message out to voters has been hard, because so many communities in the riding are remote and isolated.
Raymond Robinson of Pimicikamak hasn't yet decided if he will vote in this election, but said he'd like to see more visits from politicians between election campaigns.
"I hope that we see the candidates come visit the regions they're seeking votes from, not just come here on election day," said Robinson, who identified jobs, infrastructure and safety in the community as his top issues.
Robinson said if he does vote, he plans to do so strategically, and wants to cast a ballot for a party with a real chance at forming the next government, he said.
"There's a likelihood that the Liberals or the Conservatives will get in" and form the next government, said Robinson.
CBC News reached out to Conservative candidate Lachlan De Nardi's campaign for an interview multiple times, but did not receive a response by deadline.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
