Manitoba election: Party leaders defend candidates who live outside constituencies
Outsider candidates have roots, commitments to communities they want to serve, say party leaders
At least three of Manitoba's political parties are defending their candidates — specifically, where they live — after a CBC News analysis revealed that nearly half of them live outside the constituencies that they want to represent.
CBC analyzed the declared home addresses of nearly all of the province's 223 official candidates and compared those locations to the boundaries of each of the 57 constituencies in Manitoba.
Of the addresses that could be precisely pinpointed on a map, the homes of 47 per cent of candidates (93 of 199) were outside the constituencies in which they are running.
That number does not include 24 candidates who did not want their addresses released or have rural addresses that could not be accurately mapped.
Close to 63 per cent of NDP candidates who declared a home address live outside the constituencies in which they are running -- more than any other party.
However, NDP Leader Greg Selinger said on Monday that his candidates are dedicated to the communities they want to represent.
"A lot of our candidates have roots in the areas they're running in, and that's the most important thing," Selinger told reporters.
"They have a comfort level with the community, they have knowledge of the community and they're interested in presenting themselves there."
Selinger noted that for example, the NDP's candidate in La Verendrye, Echo Asher, grew up in the area and has family there, even though she currently lives in Winnipeg.
Asher told CBC News she was born and raised near Cook's Creek, and her mother still lives in the area.
"We always try to recruit really good people that are interested in running and presenting themselves as candidates and many of the people who step up have a connection to the communities that they're running in, whether they currently live in them or not," Selinger said.
Voters must decide, says Pallister
A similar sentiment was expressed by Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister, who said the calibre of his candidates is so high, it shouldn't be an issue that some of them don't live in the constituencies in which they're running.
About 26 per cent of PC candidates who declared their home addresses don't live in the constituencies where they're running, according to the CBC analysis. That includes Pallister, who is seeking re-election in Fort Whyte but lives in River Heights.
"I expect all the parties have a considerable percentage of candidates who don't reside in their immediate neighbourhood," Pallister said.
"That being said, it's up to the people of those areas to judge the qualities of the people that are running, and I think we have the best slate of candidates Manitobans have ever had the chance to elect."
Pallister added that he doesn't feel it's a concern that Marsha Street, his party's candidate for Point Douglas in Winnipeg, lives in Brandon, saying she has a long history of "representing the priority issues that matter to the people of Point Douglas."
Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari said while some of her party's candidates don't live in the constituencies they're running in — 44 per cent are non-residents, according to the CBC analysis — they are committed to representing those communities if they are elected.
"I know that everyone, most of them, have committed to moving into the riding if they were to win," she said.
"That's what Manitobans want to hear. They want to hear their dedication is to that community and if they were to win, they would move in there, and that should be the most important thing right now."
Bokhari is one of five candidates whose home addresses were not made public. A party spokesperson told CBC News that her address was not published for safety reasons.
Blady accuses PCs of sending 'parachute candidate'
Meanwhile, Kirkfield Park NDP candidate Sharon Blady went on the offensive on Monday, accusing her Progressive Conservative rival of being a "parachute candidate."
Blady, who is seeking re-election in Kirkfield Park, said she technically lives just "a couple streets" outside of the constituency.
"It's the neighbourhood I was born and raised in, and the notion that a small line made by Elections Manitoba cuts me off from my neighbourhood is really problematic," she said.
"There's a difference between a couple streets out and living across town, and I would argue in my particular neck of the woods, it's the Tory candidate that's the parachute candidate who moved out of the neighbourhood two years into his civic representation of my neighbourhood."
The PC candidate in Kirkfield Park, former city councillor Scott Fielding, lives in the Fort Whyte constituency. He had represented the St. James-Brooklands ward at city hall before making the leap into provincial politics.
Last month, Fielding told CBC News he grew up in the Kirkfield Park area and is more than capable of representing it.
"I represented the area for eight years on city council. I know every street, every back lane, every nook and cranny that is there," he said at the time. "So I think I'm probably not a stranger to anyone in this area."
With files from the CBC's Jacques Marcoux