New Democrat Tom Lindsey has survived a historic Progressive Conservative sweep across Manitoba, but Flin Flon’s MLA-elect believes the road ahead will be challenging.
Lindsey was victorious on election night Tuesday, coming out on top in a tight three-way race against Angela Enright of the PCs and Leslie Beck of the Liberals.
“Obviously I’m quite excited that I get to represent this riding going forward,” he said shortly after being declared the winner late Tuesday.
With the NDP winning just 14 of 57 seats, Lindsey admits serving in official opposition will make his job more difficult.
“You always have a hard time making your voice heard when you’re from the North,” he said. “Being in opposition with a really limited number of fellow New Democrats in the [legislature] makes it more of a challenge to [have] your voice [heard]. But it also makes it more important that you are the voice not just of your constituency now, but the voice of the North, to make sure that people are being properly represented and their needs are being heard.”
Across Manitoba, Brian Pallister’s PCs picked up 40 seats, the most of any party in the history of the province. The Tories did the unthinkable in unseating long-time Thompson NDP MLA Steve Ashton. The Liberals took Keewatinook away from the NDP’s Eric Robinson, meaning the New Democrats now hold two of the four northern seats, Flin Flon and The Pas.
“Provincewide, there was still resentment with the [NDP’s] one per cent sales tax [increase],” Lindsey said of the results. “People wanted a change. It’s appearing that they’re going to get that change. I don’t believe it’s the right change.”
As results trickled in election night, Lindsey consistently held small leads over his opponents. At 9:09 pm he was up 56 votes over second-place Beck; by 10:50 he was ahead of second-place Enright by 80 tallies.
“We never led by enough to really relax,” said Lindsey, a long-time labour activist who spent the evening with supporters at the Steel Centre union headquarters on Main Street.
It was well past 11 pm before media outlets declared Lindsey the winner by 112 votes. Later, Elections Manitoba’s unofficial results showed he had won by 132 votes in all.
That gave Lindsey 33 per cent of the popular vote, a far cry from the NDP’s usual dominance and a sign that political tastes had shifted across a vast riding that occupies the northwestern corner of Manitoba.
Lindsey’s victory means Flin Flon remains NDP orange as it has for nearly five decades, dating back to 1969. It also brings an end to former MLA Clarence Pettersen’s career in provincial politics after one term.
Pettersen, who sought re-election as an independent after losing the NDP nomination to Lindsey, finished the night with 11 per cent of the vote.
“When a door closes, maybe another door opens,” said Pettersen, adding that he was “definitely” disappointed with the outcome.
Pettersen congratulated Lindsey but added that “Flin Flon lost” because “the party in power is obviously not the NDP.” He predicted the new PC government would favour Thompson, a seat it now holds.
It’s unclear what impact Pettersen had on the race, though many NDP supporters believe most of his votes would have otherwise gone to Lindsey. Pettersen believes it’s possible the PCs would have won had he not entered the race.
After a long night of waiting for a victor to be declared, Lindsey gave ample credit to his campaign team, saying volunteers spent many hours working on his behalf.
“We’ve been knocking on doors every day for months,” he said.
“Sometimes some people would say perhaps we were a little aggressive in the number of times we phoned or knocked on doors, but that’s what you’ve got to do, I guess, if you want to be successful.”
As Lindsey prepares to be sworn in as MLA, he is thinking about his priorities for the constituency.
He said he will lobby the PC government to bring an MRI machine to Flin Flon, something he had spoken to former premier Greg Selinger about.
“I think it’s important,” Lindsey said. “It’s almost like an industry that we can grow here in Flin Flon, that we can start attracting people if we have advanced technology in our hospital, that doctors will want to come here and stay here.
“The other advantage that Flin Flon has over somewhere else in the North is hopefully we can partner with Saskatchewan and the communities on the Saskatchewan side, and some of the First Nations communities on both sides, and make it cost-effective, because it would be better for all those people travelling to Flin Flon rather than having to go to Winnipeg or Saskatoon.”
Partnering with Saskatchewan was a key theme of Lindsey’s campaign. He said he has already been in touch with Cumberland MLA Doyle Vermette to discuss areas of mutual benefit.
Lindsey said he wants to work with Saskatchewan on economic diversification and ensuring new mines can and do open.
“And that goes not just for Flin Flon, but that goes for all of the North, to make sure that there is industry, that there are jobs, that there’s economic hope for everybody,” he added.
Throughout his upcoming term, Lindsey is bound to face questions around the long-term future of the community of Flin Flon, particularly in relation to mining with Hudbay’s 777 mine expected to close in 2020.
He said Flin Flon may “go through a rough spell” but will “come out at the other side and be a better community for it.”
Lindsey favours a more diverse Flin Flon economy, though he is confident another mine will be located in the area by Hudbay or another company.
“There’s still resource there. It’s going to depend on world prices that right now are extremely low,” he said. “So as the world economy starts to change around and pick up, I’m pretty confident that there will be mining in Flin Flon in the future.”
As he marked his victory at the Steel Centre, Lindsey commended his campaign workers, his wife Sharon and most of his opponents in the four-way race.
“Most of them ran pretty good campaigns,” he said. “[They] kept it clean, kept it to the issues. So I thank the ones that did that.”
41st Provincial General Election Flin Flon Results
Candidate Votes %
Tom Lindsey, NDP 1,080 33
Angela Enright, PC 948 29
Leslie Beck, LIB 917 28
Clarence Pettersen, IND 355 11
Source: Elections Manitoba, unofficial results
