2019 federal election underway

Not all parties showing up in local races

September 17, 2019, 1:40 am
Kevin Weedmark

The 2019 federal election is underway, and for the first time in modern history the national parties did not all have candidates nominated in the federal ridings in southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba—Souris-Moose Mountain and Yorkton-Melville in southeast Saskatchewan and Brandon-Souris and Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa in southwest Manitoba—at the start of the election.

All four ridings are held by the Conservatives, who won with large majorities in the last election, and the People’s Party of Canada has candidates in all four ridings.

But in all four, when the election was called Wednesday there were no Liberal or NDP candidates nominated.

Although the other national parties have had poor results in recent elections, they have all fielded candidates in the past.

Souris-Moose Mountain

There are just three candidates in Souris-Moose Mountain—Conservative Robert Kitchen, Phil Zajac of the People’s Party of Canada, and Travis Patron of the Canadian Nationalist Party.

With 70 per cent of the vote, the NDP was second with 13.68 per cent of the vote, and the Liberals were third with 13.53 per cent.

Yorkton-Melville

There are only three candidates in Yorkton-Melville—Conservative Cathay Wagantall, Ryan Schultz of the People’s Party of Canada, and Stacey Wiebe of the Greens.

In the 2015 election, Wagantall was elected with 59 per cent of the vote, the NDP was second with 20 per cent, and the Liberals were third with 18 per cent.

Brandon-Souris

There are four candidates in Brandon-Souris—Conservative Larry Maguire, Joseph Lussier of the People’s Party of Canada, Bill Tiessen of the Green Party, and Rebecca Hein of the Christian Heritage Party.

In the 2015 election, Maguire won with 50 per cent of the vote, the Liberals were second with 37 per cent, and the NDP was third with six per cent.

Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa

There are four candidates in Dauphin-Swan-River-Neepawa—Conservative Dan Mazier, Frank Godon of the People’s Party of Canada, Katharine Storey of the Green Party and Jenni Johnson of the Christian Heritage Party.

In the 2015 federal election, Conservative Robert Sopuck won with 46 per cent of the vote, the Liberals were second with 30 per cent, and the NDP were third with 12 per cent.

Over the next three weeks, the World-Spectator will reach out to all the candidates in the local ridings on their policies in this campaign.