A “clearly unethical and morally reprehensible” scheme to split votes in rural ridings in the 1995 provincial election made Manitoba headlines last week.
But it wasn’t easy to find rural people to comment on former judge Alfred Monnin’s conclusions in his inquiry into election infractions.
Ray Bernier, a farmer from Fisher Branch, Man., said the inquiry isn’t a hot topic among people he talks to in the Interlake region.
There’s been “no outpouring of disdain” in the riding where most of the infractions occurred because people are already so cynical about politics.
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“They just pass it off as, ‘Big deal,’ ” said Bernier.
During the 1995 election, many people in the riding knew an independent candidate was trying to siphon NDP votes so the Tory candidate would have a better chance of winning, he said.
It’s not the first time politicians have spoiled the democratic process, Bernier noted.
“Lies and politics, politics and lies: they’re all the same thing,” he said.
In the Swan River riding, the politician who narrowly won the 1995 election despite the vote-splitting scheme, said most people she talks to aren’t shocked by the commission’s findings.
Rather, the results fuel voters’ cynicism, said Rosann Wowchuk.
“It blackens the names of many politicians that have never had any part of these schemes,” she said.
“It taints the whole political process.”
Wowchuk, the NDP’s agriculture critic, won the riding by a slim 37 votes over the Tory candidate.
The independent candidate received 110 votes. It’s impossible to know whether the votes would have otherwise gone to the NDP, said Wowchuk, but she noted aboriginal communities in her riding traditionally support her party.
Wowchuk visited several aboriginal communities in her riding just before the final report was released. She said the vote-splitting inquiry seemed to be an issue with aboriginal people.
“They’re feeling a sense of frustration and disappointment that they were used like that,” she said.
Premier Gary Filmon has said there will be a provincial election this year. Recent polls suggest the inquiry and the involvement of top Tory aides and fund-raisers has hurt Filmon’s popularity in the province. Pundits believe Filmon will wait until fall to call the election.
Wowchuk said she thinks the inquiry may have some impact on voters in the next election, but she expects the big “bread and butter” issues of health care and education to dominate, especially in her riding.
“I think it will be a tight race (in the Swan River riding) in the next election,” she said.
