Blaikie seeks re-election in Elmwood-Transcona

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This article was published 08/09/2021 (1550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Daniel Blaikie, the incumbent Member of Parliament for Elmwood-Transcona, is seeking re-election in the federal election, which takes place on Mon., Sept. 20.

A member of the New Democractic Party of Canada, Blaikie was first elected in a close race in 2015, then re-elected in 2019. Blaikie, a lifelong resident of the area and son of former area MP and MLA Bill Blaikie, called the current election a “vanity project” for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“It’s pretty clear this is not a good time for an election,” Blaikie, a 37-year-old father of two, told The Herald. “I think people got a better pandemic response as a result of the accountability that a minority parliament produced. All the prime minister had to do was to continue working with the parliament we had.”

Ensuring Canadians had support during the early days of the pandemic, by way of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, is one example Blaikie pointed to of how the NDP was able to leverage its position within the minority government.

“We knew people would need support before the initial lockdown,” Blaikie said. “We just knew that wasn’t going to be enough. With this parliament, we were able to push and get better response for people.”

Since his first run at federal office in 2015, Blaikie has been advocating for a national pharmacare program that is fully covered under our health care system. The pandemic, he believes, only highlighted that need.

“In an economic crisis, people are also losing their coverage along with income,” Blaikie said, noting that the Liberal and Conservative parties voted against NDP proposals to provide universal pharmacare and dental coverage to Canadians.

“On some of these longer-standing issues, we often saw them teeming up with Conservatives to defend the status quo,” he said.

As a father of two young children, Blaikie said he is very concerned with the escalating climate crisis unfolding around the world.

“The longer we wait, the higher the economic cost of climate change,” he said. “It will have a disruptive effect on the economy, but there’s till time to minimize effect. We’ve already waited too long, and if we wait any longer, those costs will only be higher. It’s so important that we get moving now.”

Blaikie believes the influence the NDP was able to exert in the recently dissolved parliament on climate and environmental policy was a step in the right direct.

“But if left to their own devices, I think the Liberals will walk away from a lot of those commitments,” Blaikie added. “Ideally, we’ll have an NDP government that will do these things because they’re the right thing to go, not because they’re vote getters at election time. But if not, we still need a strong NDP caucus to hold the government to account.”

Blaikie believes these national policy decisions have a big impact on the local level, and if re-elected he said he would also be pushing to ensure Elmwood-Transcona are considered when it comes time for funding decisions.

“We’ve seen great projects here that are possible because we’ve fought for those projects nationally,” he said. “That’s where the focus will continue to be, to create opportunities around these challenges, and advocating for these projects here to get the green light for those programs.”

At press time, Rejeanne Caron (CPC), Devlin Hinchey (Green), Sara Mirwaldt (Liberal), and Jamie Cumming (PPC) were also running in Elmwood-Transcona in the Sept. 20 election.

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@canstarnews.com Call him at 204-697-7112

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