In what may be a political first in the British Commonwealth, former governor general Edward Schreyer will announce his candidacy Thursday as a New Democrat Party candidate in Winnipeg.
CTV's Rosemary Thompson broke the story Tuesday on Mike Duffy Live.
"I'm told through different people in the NDP he's really mad about this current government and that's what spurred him on to get back into politics," Thompson said.
....
The 70-year-old Schreyer will be running for the riding of Selkirk/Interlake which is comprised of Winnipeg suburbs and the town of Selkirk. The NDP had another candidate on the books for the riding, Wayne James, but he told CTV he has decided to step aside in order to let Mr. Schreyer run.
Selkirk-Interlake has moved fairly solidly towards the right since the NDP's heyday in the 70's and 80's; James Bezan took it for the Tories by 8,200 votes last time out and Ed Schreyer's best days are long past him. He doesn't enjoy quite the same cross-party public profile and respect that Ed Broadbent did, so I don't see him making serious inroads into the Tory vote here.
But he might siphon off some soft Liberal votes and narrow the margin a bit.
Still waiting to hear from Heward Grafftey about a comeback, though.
Source: CTV
2 comments:
Interesting. Well at least my poor little riding is getting some attention. I would like to point out (and I may have to write a letter to CTV about this too) that no one I know considers Selkirk-Interlake to be a Winnipeg riding.
It's rural. As such it is filled with farming communities (particularly beef farms who are still hurting from the BSE thing). James Bezan knows agriculture and has stood up to speak about it a number of times, I think he's got the farm vote wrapped up.
Yeah there will be some people in the southern part of the riding who are going to vote NDP now. But I still expect to be reading letters from Mr.Bezan when he's re-elected.
Isn't it a bit odd that Schreyer wants to express his outrage at the government by running against another opposition MP?
Seems a little off to me.
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