Current MLA Steve Ashton won’t be the only long-time Thompsonite seeking a spot in the provincial legislature when election day rolls around in April as he’ll be up against local business owner and 1983 R.D. Parker Collegiate valedictorian Kelly Bindle.
The operator of engineering consulting firm Bindle Engineering Limited, which he established in 2006, and of Ripple Rock Meat Shop since its opening in 2013, Bindle was born and raised in the city. His mother Grace Bindle, who still lives in the home the candidate grew up in across from Juniper School, is a retired teacher and his late father Otto Bindle was formerly the manager of the Thompson Inn and Burntwood Hotel and later opened his own business, Thompson Bargain Furniture.
Bindle was acclaimed as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Thompson at a nomination meeting in Winnipeg last May, about a year after he became active with the party. And while he didn’t always envision himself as a candidate for elected office, he says that everyone is involved in politics whether they realize it or not.
“If you don’t get involved you’re governed by those who do,” he said in an interview Nov. 19. “If you go in with integrity and maintain integrity throughout it’s a noble way to live your life.”
Bindle says that under the NDP government that’s been in power since 1999, Manitobans have been paying more and getting less.
“I want to work towards tax relief,” says Bindle, noting that taxes are higher in this province than in its western neighbour Saskatchewan. “The could actually put a kid through university on the money they save from taxes [compared to Manitoba].”
The PC candidate feels that the province’s north isn’t living up to its potential.
“People in the north are fit, friendly, hard-working and caring,” Bindle says. “They don’t want a handout. They want opportunity. I believe they want a change for the better.”
Among the changes Bindle says the Progressive Conservative party will bring in if they are elected as Manitoba’s next government are accountability in government, value for contracts with proper tendering, as well as a reversion to the previous provincial sales tax (PST) of seven per cent, along with a shorter and less costly route for Manitoba Hydro’s Bipole III transmission line, which will result in “tremendous savings” for taxpayers not only in construction costs but in lower annual maintenance costs. He also says control of Manitoba Hydro would be given back to its management employees.
“Nobody wants to privatize Manitoba Hydro,” Bindle says. “We don’t want to bankrupt it the way the NDP seem to.”
Another change the PCs would bring in would be more efficiently planned infrastructure expenditures to get away from the “bust-bust-bust-boom” approach that’s currently in place, which he says sees the boom years coincide with elections.
One area of particular concern to Bindle is health care.
“The lack of health care in the north is pathetic,” he says, noting that there aren’t enough hospital beds for seniors and that those who receive home care may receive it for as little as 15 minutes a day and have to go without it on holidays. Bindle says a PC government would simplify and strengthen health care using a patient-first approach so everybody can receive the care they need when they need it and that it would also invest in programs like a recruitment and retention initiative for physicians in rural communities.
Bindle knows a lot of people in Thompson thanks to living here a long time and being active in organizations like the Royal Canadian Legion but he says there are many newer residents he hasn’t met and he’s looking forward to meeting them between now and the election when he goes out knocking on doors to introduce himself and listen to residents’ concerns.
A focus on listening is one of the things he says attracted him to the PC party, which he stresses is not affiliated with the Conservative Party of Canada. The party wants candidates to hear and deliver the concerns of the people and not the other way around.
“You talk to the people, you find out the issues and you talk to us,” is what his instructions are, Bindle says.
Manitoba is lagging behind other provinces in areas such as hospital wait times and education scores and ahead in areas like crime rates, says Bindle, arguing that government waste is threatening front-line services. He notes that the province’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s in July which means more money is going to pay debt than before. The Progressive Conservative party wants to introduce legislation that would see the premier and cabinet ministers have their salaries rolled back 20 per cent if the province runs a deficit as a way to encourage balanced budgets.
Bindle feels the current government spends too much money promoting itself within the province when it should be taking steps like ensuring meaningful consultation with First Nations and Métis people to create certainty for companies in sectors like mining exploration.
“There’s plenty of steady growth signs but few signs of steady growth,” he says.
A key to the province’s future is ensuring opportunities are available for all and particularly for aboriginal youth, Bindle says.
And though he knows he faces a formidable challenge in the form of current MLA Ashton and that his party faces a battle against a government seeking a fifth consecutive term, Bindle is optimistic.
“Imagine better, believe in better, expect better because change for the better is coming,” he says.
