Provincial byelection a week away for Kirkland Park

The provincial byelection in Kirkfield Park is next week, where a former city councillor, a retired nurse, and a correctional officer will go head-to-head to fill the vacant seat.

Kevin Klein was the former city councillor for the Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood ward and most recently ran for Mayor of Winnipeg. He says his four years of experience in municipal politics has prepared him for this next challenge.

“I’m aware of the work that needs to be done in the community and I am also ready to get to work to finish off a lot of projects that are necessary,” said Kevin Klein, Manitoba PC candidate for Kirkfield Park.

Klein says he has spoken to many Kirkfield Park residents throughout the campaign and the biggest issues they want to see fixed are crime and health care. He says finding staff and filling vacant positions in hospitals as soon as possible is important.

“I think the PC team is the only team that is making any actions to fix that, and they are doing that with the $200 million to retain and attract new medical staff,” added Klein.

Liberal candidate Rhonda Nichol has worked as a nurse for over 33 years, 29 of which were spent working at Grace Hospital. At this point in her life, Nichol says she never thought she would be running for the MLA seat in Kirkfield Park, but the current government’s decisions gave her no choice.

“I truly don’t understand why our government did not have the good planning for us to not end up in this place. 10 years ago, they could’ve started making plans to prevent us from getting into this mess but nothing of such was done,” said Nichol.

Nichol says she is committed to improving health care in Manitoba and if elected, will invest in removing the surgical procedure wait list, removing mandatory overtime for nurses and improving access to mental health services.

Logan Oxenham is the candidate for the Manitoba NDP. He says he also wants to reduce mandated overtime hours for nurses and wants to see Grace Hospital function at a level it was designed to function at, not over capacity.

“We want to see the hours extended at the access centre that is attached to the Grace Hospital, so the folks can get the care they need,” said Oxenham.

The seat in Kirkfield Park was most recently held by former cabinet minister Scott Fielding, who retired from politics in June. Political Science Professor Christopher Adams says the outcome of this by-election could be a slight indicator for what is to come in October for the provincial election.

“The PCs really do have to be winning such seats like Kirkfield Park, Fort Whyte, other ridings in South Winnipeg. The suburban ridings are critical for the PCs to win the next election so if they are losing seats in suburban Winnipeg, they nearly lost Fort Whyte a few months ago, and if they lose this seat, it really does bode ill for the PCs,” said Christopher Adams, Political Science Professor, University of Manitoba.

Dennis Bayomi is the candidate representing the Green Party of Manitoba.

Election day is Tuesday, December 13.