[RCO]

Two byelections in Manitoba

By THE CANADIAN PRESS





The Elmwood race features Bill Blaikie - a long-serving member of Parliament who retired from federal politics last year.(THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG - Voters in two Manitoba NDP strongholds go to the polls today.

Provincial byelections are being held in The Pas and in the Elmwood constituency in Winnipeg. Both seats were cakewalks for the NDP in the 2007 general election, when the New Democrat candidates each received more than 60 per cent of the vote and tripled the vote total of their nearest competitor.

The Elmwood race features Bill Blaikie - a long-serving member of Parliament who retired from federal politics last year.

Blaikie is up against Progressive Conservative candidate Adrian Schulz, a young entrepreneur, and Liberal Regan Wolfrom, a small business owner.

In The Pas, former aboriginal chief Frank Whitehead is running for the NDP, Edna Nabess is running for the Tories and Maurice Berens is carrying the Liberal banner


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Po.....21-cp.html

[concerned]

Two easy wins for the NDP. THE Manitoba PC party is centrist at best. Manitoba needs a strong Conservative party to do what Brad Wall and company have done in Saskatchewan.

[Fraser Macdonald]

Blaikie easily wins, but I've heard that The Pas is expected to be close at this point. The NDP government there has really dropped the ball on rural healthcare and there is a pretty significant backlash.