Days away from the election, here’s why Manitobans are casting a ballot

Just over one week away from election day in Manitoba, advance polls are open and more than 50,000 registered voters have cast ballots for who they would like to lead the province for the next four years.

Some residents, however, are still undecided as to who they want to see carry the banner of leadership, and politicians are doing their final campaign pushes before Oct. 3.

Ali Eshaghi, who hasn’t voted yet, has been keeping up with the election through social media and other platforms. He said while no party has persuaded him to stray from his initial decision as to who he will vote for, he thinks people his age are paying more attention to politics than before.

“It’s important for us to have a say in it. Because if we’re the ones who are dealing with the initial impacts, we should be the ones who have the most important thing, and not people who are going to retire from office 10 years from now … So I feel like it’s really important for especially younger adults to vote,” he said.

The cost of living and affordability are some of his key issues this election.

“If my generation could have an impact or make a decision, where we’re not struggling every day to meet our basic financial needs and stuff like that, that’d be really great.”

Heather Siemens, who voted in advance polls on Saturday, sees health care, addictions and mental illness as key issues.

She said despite promises made, there wasn’t anything the current governing party said during the campaign to sway her vote.

“I couldn’t in good conscience vote for the same thing that was happening in this province for the last four, six years. So I had to I had to make a change. So I voted for change,” she said.

Dr. Chris Adams, an adjunct professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba, said if current polling holds up, there will be a change in government.

“I think there’s a sense of more interest in this election. Because it’s not a highly predicted outcome in the sense of the government being re-elected,” he said.

Adams said in terms of last-minute campaigning in the week leading up to the election, a lot of the critical things have already happened so far, including all debates between the major party leaders.

“I would say a lot of the pivotal moments in this election have already occurred. Now is the week in which you make some last-minute promises. You look at where you might have to defend yourself against the opposing parties,” he said.

Parties will also be targeting areas with swing voters, too.

“They will be putting special efforts into those neighbourhoods.”

According to Elections Manitoba, 32,000 people voted in advance on Saturday and 17,000 on Sunday.

In the last provincial election, 113,000 people voted during the advance voting period. In Manitoba there are 866,000 people on the voter’s list.

Tiago Cordeiro, a newcomer from Brazil, is worried about education and the spreading of misinformation.

“We are concerned about children, we should be concerned about how many children are not in the school, and not what is going on in the school,” he said was his key issue this election.

“Don’t vote with hate, but vote with the beliefs that you have.”

— with files from Iris Dyck

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