Right in the centre - Liberals and NDP still seeking candidates

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Published on Thursday, March 17, 2016

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

As of March 15, a scan of the party candidates for the April 19 election makes for some interesting reading. The PC Manitoba party has a full slate of 57 candidates. It has been in that position for a few weeks now. One would think the other parties would be too, especially the governing NDP. But not so. The NDP are still short 12 candidates and the Liberals are short 20. How can that be?

The election date has been set for years already. The NDP have certainly known that it’s coming soon, in fact, as of March 15, the election is only 35 days away. By the publication date, it will be only 32 days away. Something is definitely off the rails at the NDP and Liberal party HQs.

The lack of candidates for the Liberals and NDP is being somewhat offset by the abundance of fringe party candidates and independents. Agassiz constituency has a PC candidate, an Independent Conservative candidate and a conservative-minded person running for the Green Party. No Liberal or NDP candidate as of today’s writing.

There are many reasons for the lack of candidates. One is that the NDP are in disarray and are concentrating on their stronghold, namely Winnipeg. They know they may lose some rural seats, but they hope to hold enough city seats to keep government, or at least a strong opposition. It is amazing that they only got a candidate in a held seat, Transcona, this week. 

The Liberal party has been plagued by being out of government since 1958. I was only 10 when they were defeated. The party somewhat collapsed in the 1969 NDP era and came back somewhat in the late ‘80s. They have only had one or two seats since then. The Liberals thought they might rise on the Trudeau tide, but they are having some trouble tapping into that movement. Prime Minister Trudeau pretty much swept the country for the Liberals last October but he’s either too busy to campaign in Manitoba or he doesn’t want to be tainted this early in his career with a losing campaign. I doubt that Trudeau will be in Manitoba a lot for this election.

Aside from strictly party considerations, there are other factors. It takes a lot of money to fund a political party. Fund raising takes a lot of work and commitment by thousands of people. It’s a tough road. For a political party to be effective, they have to have a HQ, several staff, either paid or volunteer, and a very good organization. The NDP have had a good organization but many of their people have aged out, become disenchanted or moved Alberta to work with the NDP government in that province. The Liberals have very little money and are riding the coat tails of dedicated volunteers. The PCs have a good organization and some money in the bank.

On a personal level, to run for a nomination can take months of work if it is a contested nomination like Riding Mountain and Agassiz. It can also be as simple as showing up in a non-held riding and saying “I will run.” When the campaign begins, and it  did begin months ago, a candidate’s day can be as full as they have time to make for the task. It can be from dawn to dusk and then some. It costs a lot of money for gas, an office, nicer clothing, meals and most of all, the time away from the job or career. To win a non-held seat requires months or even years of hard, hard work. Many constituencies have 8,000 or more households and that’s a lot of door knocking.