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Liberals develop heightened interest in Northern Manitoba as they enter fourth year of their mandate

Although Thompson has not yet fully dealt with the aftermath of its municipal election when it comes to whether or not a byelection is going to be needed, with the chance of some news on that front coming later this week, if you look in the pages of

Although Thompson has not yet fully dealt with the aftermath of its municipal election when it comes to whether or not a byelection is going to be needed, with the chance of some news on that front coming later this week, if you look in the pages of this newspaper and the Nickel Belt News in recent weeks, it becomes pretty clear that we are gearing up for another one, this time on the federal stage, before long.

Obviously, the situation involving the lack of train service to Churchill, which lasted over a year, had to be resolved and to some degree it has, with the first freight shipment since spring 2017 rolling into the port town a few days ago. And it was a complicated one, with a private owner, a consortium of communities and private companies, and a host of other factors making it difficult to resolve. However, as far as the federal Liberal party is concerned, the fact that the solution happened to come about in, oh, the last year or so before an election will likely be held, is a pleasant bonus.

Similarly, groups in Churchill and elsewhere in Northern Manitoba, like the Boreal Discovery Centre in Thompson, have long been in search of funding. It’s just their luck right now that the federal government is in a giving mood, what with it being the pre-Christmas season and all. And while no one is likely saying that communities like Bunibonibee Cree Nation and others that received confirmation of federal funding for new schools this month were not in need of new facilities, it isn’t immediately clear why these projects came together now instead of, say, three years ago when the Liberals first took power under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In addition to being needed, the above-noted investments by the federal government may also have a secondary motivation. When Trudeau come to power in October 2015, he very nearly did so with the electoral district of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski as a Liberal seat, something that hadn’t happened, in essence, since 2006, when Liberal candidate Tina Keeper won the Churchill riding, which had slightly different boundaries than the current riding, over current NDP MP Niki Ashon, who has held the seat since 2008. That year, however, Keeper’s cause was helped by former NDP MP Bev Desjarlais running as an independent, which likely siphoned away some NDP support.

In 2015, however, there was no independent candidate splitting the NDP’s share of the votes. Still, Ashton only won by a little over 900 votes despite running against a candidate who lived in Winnipeg, rather than the riding itself, but still managed to collect more votes in Ashton’s hometown of Thompson as well as in Flin Flon.

Could it be, perhaps, that the Liberals sense a weakening of NDP support in the region and are shrewdly leveraging one of the most important levers of power that government controls – the ability to spend money – in an effort to convince Northern Manitoba voters that they should maybe take a chance on a party with a reasonable chance of forming government when the next election comes? But that’s not really the big question here, is it? What we’re really interested to find out is, will it work? Judging from the recent spate of spending announcements by the federal government in Northern Manitoba as well as the southern part of the province, it feels like the time when we will get that answer is not that far off.

 
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