So it’s official: I am the Liberal candidate for Elmwood for the Manitoba Provincial Election.
For those of you in Elmwood, you know that we’ve had NDP MLA Jim Maloway since the dawn of time, aside from that time when he switched spots with his federal counterpart for a few years.
Jim Maloway is very good at certain things, including poking premiers in the eye, no matter which party that premier is a part of. But I don’t think that’s gotten us very far in Elmwood; progress in Elmwood has come from other people, generally from residents in the community banding together for a good cause.
I want to see Elmwood represented in a way that involves more than protest mailouts and really big signs. I’ve always believed that an MLA is the person best positioned to bridge the gaps between all stakeholders, from the residents, to the city, and all the way to the feds.
I believe that I am the right choice to make that happen. If you would like to hear more, please email me or visit my fancy new Facebook page. Election Day is Tuesday, September 10th.
What I really need to right now is put up my own signs; I do have some, waiting to come back out and get some fresh non-garage air. If you live in Elmwood and love red and while signs, or think it’s time for a positive change from the Orange vs. Blue sniping, please email me or message me on that aforementioned fancy new Facebook Page.
For people in Manitoba who aren’t lucky enough to live in Elmwood, I want to say something about the Manitoba Liberals: we are the ones who work with everyone, who look at issues in Manitoba and bring forward solutions based on evidence, best practice, and experience from other parts of the country and the world.
We do not close down emergency rooms with no workable transition plan in place and no thought to the fallout, with a sky-is-falling approach to our budget issues. We also don’t promise to ignore the results of health care reports just because we want to stand out from some other party. We take our time to do things right, accepting that we haven’t provided consistent emergency-level care in the Capital Region and that the hospitals need change, but also knowing that cutting and slashing in a mad rush is not what anyone needs. You don’t need to break health care so you can build it back up; this isn’t a cliched movie about boot camp, it’s real life.
And we are the only party that knows the reality of what is needed for climate change. We know that we need to increase all of our efforts, from putting a fair price on carbon emissions in a way that doesn’t cripple our economy and our families, to planting trees (not necessarily on apartment balconies), and to looking at what kind of parts our province can play in both green tech and the upcoming field of climate restoration.
I think every Manitoban who watches the governance in Manitoba knows that we are on a seesaw between two ideologue parties who will never play nice together, and who spend a huge amount of their energy either attacking or undoing what the other party has done.
Political whiplash won’t get this province anywhere but straight to the back of the pack. We need moderation, conciliation, compromise, and civility. We need to stop treating people with opposing views like criminals or garbage.
And that will not happen if Manitobans keep voting for the PCs and NDP. We all know that. Voting blue or orange means telling those parties that we want more sniping and negativity and the spend-then-slash-then-spend-again seesaw.
So vote Liberal on September 10th. And if you’re in Elmwood, vote for Regan. And take a freaking sign. 🙂
Regan Wolfrom 
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