She currently lives in Winnipeg but Rebecca Chartrand, who will represent the Liberal party as its candidate in the Churchill-Keewatinook-Aski riding in the fall’s federal election, makes it clear she isn’t a parachute candidate.
“My family’s from the north,” said Chartrand in an interview with the Thompson Citizen on July 16 during a visit Thompson for a number of events, including a meet and greet at Boston Pizza the previous evening. “I’ve lived and worked in different parts of the north. My son’s family, for example, is from York Landing; his grandma lives right here in Thompson. I also have family in The Pas.”
In addition to personal connections, Chartrand also has practical experience north of the 53rd parallel.
“The furthest north that I’ve ever worked is Lac Brochet,” she said. “That was an interesting experience. A bit of a culture shock in some ways when you grow up in the south and then you go north. The price of food, for example, was a real rude awakening.”
That community and others like it in the now-expanded riding – which encompasses the Churchill riding currently represented in Parliament by the NDP’s Niki Ashton as well as the Interlake area - face particular challenges related to their geography.
“If you go into the Island Lakes area, the issue there is remote isolation,” notes the Liberal candidate. “You can only get there by fly-in or by winter roads and because of global warming the winter road timeframe is decreasing so there’s a need to invest in infrastructure so that communities from the north have access to urban areas.”
Further south, the big issue is flooding.
“Lake St. Martin, for example, is a community that’s been displaced for the last four years and it’s something that, although it’s a provincial issue, the federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to intervene when First Nations people are affected by whatever issues or challenges they’re dealing with,” Chartrand says.
In the larger communities of the province’s north, the dominant issue is the economy.
“The mining industry isn’t doing as well as it used to so employment in those areas has been decreasing so there’s definitely different issues depending on where you go geographically,” she says. “It’s really important to take a look at what people are doing in different regions to address those issues and to really get behind that and to support those initiatives.”
Though she’s long been involved in political issues, Chartrand first sought elected office during the last municipal election in Winnipeg.
“That was part of my work with Drag the Red,” says Chartrand. “Drag the Red is a grassroots initiative in Winnipeg that began after the body of Tina Fontaine was found in the Red River. At that time we were really upset that there was no political will to support the idea of dragging the Red River to look for missing bodies.”
For Chartrand, the issue hits close to home.
“These are issues I’ve been passionate about my whole life because I have a cousin that went missing when she was 14 and they’ve never found her,” the candidate says. “I also had a best friend who went missing when I was 16 and we found her body two weeks later. She was badly beaten and found not too far from the river.”
Although she wasn’t elected in Winnipeg, Chartrand savoured the experience and says there are some parallels between that campaign and the one she has embarked on in Northern Manitoba.
“Once I got in and started running in the civic election and door-knocking it really lit a fire in me,” she recalls. “I was running in the Point Douglas area where there’s a large population of aboriginal people and a very low turnout, which is very similar to the Churchill riding, you know, because in the last election there was only 43 per cent turnout. It’s important people get out and vote and get involved and voice their concerns, that people are heard.”
Chartrand says she believes that voters in Canada have a lot of frustrations with the current federal government and that the Liberal party is the best choice to deliver remedies for those frustrations.
“I think people have lost faith in our government and there’s a need to restore trust in our government and I think the Liberals have the best plan in place to restore democracy,” says Chartrand. “Justin Trudeau, the leader of the Liberal party, is really focused on bringing people together. I’ve had the opportunity to meet him three times now and hear him speak and I really like his message about unity and about restoring trust in government, of having a transparent government and having a government that works for the people, the average person, the middle class and those that are wanting to join it. I think that’s a message that resonates with the average Canadian because when you’re out there talking to people, there’s a lot of disgruntled people who, like I said, have lost faith in government and democracy.”
Part of the Liberals’ plan to grow the economy is by ensuring people have money to spend.
“If you take a look at the Liberals’ plan, for example, for the Canada child benefit, it ensures that the middle class receives some tax breaks and a guaranteed income. So for example the typical family, two parents, two children, maybe earning up to $90,000 a year, it will guarantee a monthly income for them through the Canada child benefit. It also supports families that aren’t making an income as well, so those that are trying to join [the middle class]. Whether you make $10,000 a year or $90,000 a year it’s going to support those families that need it the most. For a child under the age of six, I believe it’s $533 and for children over the age of six to 18, it’s $433 a month, tax-free.”
The challenge for Chartrand between now and October is to get out and connect with voters in the massive riding.
“It’s very costly to fly into First Nations communities,” she says.
Once in front of a potential voter, however, Chartrand is comfortable.
“In terms of connecting to the people, that’s never been an issue for me,” she says. “I have friends in all parts of the Churchill riding because, as you know, many northerners from First Nations communities have to go to urban areas to attend school because there isn’t a high school so there’s usually a large influx of youth from the north from many First Nations communities who come to the city and to places like Thompson. A strength that I have is just really being able to rally people together and work together for a common cause. I’ve been involved at the grassroots level since I was a teenager just rallying people together on important issues, whether it’s missing and murdered indigenous women or important education issues. I think once people get to know me, hopefully they’ll think I’m an ideal candidate.”
