Quiet start to health minister’s travelling sofa tour

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This article was published 12/09/2022 (835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WITH daylight hours rapidly diminishing and as trees change colour for the fall, Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon and her sofa made their first stop of a promised summer conversation tour.

Cameron Eason, senior manager of strategic communications for the Progressive Conservative caucus, said the Southdale Tory MLA met with passers-by at a to-be-renamed Winnipeg park in the Niakwa Park neighbourhood Monday morning.

It was the first such occasion for voters to meet-and-greet with the health minister after she promised in April to haul the piece of furniture to parks and green spaces in her southeast Winnipeg constituency.

“These pop-up events are a great way to connect with constituents on a grassroots, informal level as one of many means constituents can engage with MLA Gordon,” the party spokesman said in a statement to the Free Press. “Those she spoke with today were very pleased to have an unscheduled conversation with their MLA in this format.”

Eason stated Gordon arrived at the green space at 100 Comanche Rd. — which Winnipeg city council stripped of its name last year, after a committee determined the name Papoose Park was offensive — with her sofa around 9 a.m. She spent more than an hour at the location.

The Tories were unable to supply a photo of Gordon engaged in the outreach initiative, as constituency members had not provided permission for their image to be shared, the spokesman said.

No details about the sofa or how it was transported to the park were available. However, the sofa is said to be small enough to fit into a sport utility vehicle.

Gordon is expected to make additional appearances with the sofa this season. The date, time and location of the public conversations are not being publicized.

Earlier this summer, Gordon said the outreach initiative had been delayed owing to wet weather.

When Gordon’s plan to host such conversations were first made public, she was panned by the Manitoba Nurses Union, which invited the minister to bring the couch to any emergency room or long-term care facility to hear directly from people in the health system.