ASHVILLE, Man. – Joe Federowich isn’t a member of any provincial political party.
His father, the second generation of the Federowich family on the Dauphin-area farm, was a lifelong Progressive Conservative card carrier.
Joe Federowich used to be a PC member, but for Manitoba’s June 3 election he is thinking of throwing his support behind Stan Struthers, the New Democratic Party MLA and candidate for Dauphin-Roblin.
“I suppose I am a supporter now,” said Federowich, as he sat at the kitchen table with Struthers during a visit early in the provincial election campaign.
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“I’m open-minded. I’ll vote for whoever I think will do the best for us.”
That’s music to Struthers’s ears, because he would like to keep his seat. The city-based NDP wants to hang on to this rural riding.
“People here are realistic,” said Struthers, before meeting with Federowich.
“I don’t think they want to hear you make big promises that they don’t think you can keep.”
When Federowich was asked about the education tax issue, he immediately told Struthers that the NDP had better keep reducing the school tax burden on farmers.
But he also didn’t have much good to say about the PC promise to entirely eliminate the education portion of property taxes.
“I just don’t see how they can do that,” said Federowich. “That’s a lot of money.”
Federowich said he has liked the NDP government’s commitment to small-scale economic development, such as its support for the hemp industry and for ethanol, and wants to see the cautious approach continue.
That support for the NDP is a challenge for PC candidate Bill Griffin, who would love to take this traditionally NDP riding for his party. He needs to show people on farms and in this riding’s towns that the PCs would deliver on their promises to cut taxes while still helping the rural economy diversify.
He bristles at the suggestion that a Conservative government would be unable to deliver the education tax cut.
“We all signed personal guarantees (to eliminate education taxes on residential and farm property) and I don’t take something like that lightly,” said Griffin, who is a former insurance adjuster who operates a specialty construction business in Dauphin.
Griffin said the NDP has been scaring Manitobans about Tory promises as a way of distracting voters from the fact that the NDP has offered almost nothing to farmers and rural people.
“We’ve come out with some strong ideas, while the NDP have almost ignored agriculture,” said Griffin.
A PC government would ante up its share of the new safety net program, which the NDP has failed to do, he said.
It would also spend more money on the tuberculosis problem in Riding Mountain National Park, a key local concern.
Griffin said many farmers now are worried about bovine spongiform encephalopathy, so their interest in the provincial election has slipped.
He thinks his biggest competitor won’t be Struthers, but timing. When voting takes place, many farmers will be unhappy about leaving their field work to drive to town to vote.
“I can’t imagine any government in a western Canadian province having that much lack of respect for the farmer to call an election at seeding time.”
PC candidates are trying to reach busy farmers through the airwaves.
“We’re putting a lot more money into radio ads than we would normally because we’re having to reach them in their tractors,” said Griffin.
“They can’t afford to shut down and talk to you.”
Liberal candidate Joelle Robinson said she thinks the NDP government is going to see its farmer vote slip away because it is offering them little hope.
Its rejection of the PC education tax cut proposal and the more modest Liberal education tax cut proposal that is specifically designed for farmers shows the NDP has little thought for the future of farming.
“It’s another example of their defeatist attitude,” said Robinson.
“They just take the view it can’t be done. When the NDP throw up their hands and say it’s not possible, you have to wonder how hard they’re working to make any improvements.”
