Farms.com will highlight ag in party platforms as they become available
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Manitobans will head to voting booths next month for the province’s 43rd general election.
Voting day is Oct. 3, and Premier Heather Stefanson is expected to officially make the election call on Tuesday, multiple outlets report.
This will be Stefanson’s first election as PC Manitoba leader after taking over from Brian Pallister following his retirement.
For the PCs, they’ll be looking to hold onto the majority government the party earned in 2019 with 36 seats.
Wab Kinew and the Manitoba NDP formed the official opposition with 18 seats in 2019. Dougald Lamont and the Manitoba Liberal Party won three seats but fell one short of official party status.
Party platforms are not yet available on the provincial PC, NDP or Liberal party sites.
But once they are, Farms.com will comb through the documents to let Manitoba producers know how each party plans to support the ag sector.
Derek Johnson, the MLA for Interlake-Gimli and current minister of agriculture will be looking to hold onto the seat he’s held since 2016.
And Diljeet Brar, the NDP’s ag critic, won his seat in Burrows since 2019.
Recent polling suggests this election could be a close one between Stefanson and Kinew’s parties.
“Province-wide, 41 per cent of decided voters would cast ballots for Premier Heather Stefanson and the PCs, - up three points since March 2023 and six points since December 2022,” June 2023 data from Probe Research says. “Support for Wab Kinew’s NDP, meanwhile, has slid three points since March (41 per cent down from 44 per cent).”