Manitoba Green Party unveils election platform with 'four major priorities'

The Manitoba Green Party announced its campaign platform Saturday, less than three weeks ahead of the provincial election slated for Oct. 3.

Leader Janine Gibson unveiled the party's "four major priorities" at Winnipeg's Vimy Ridge Park addressing the climate emergency, focusing on preventative approaches to health-care, advocating for a basic guaranteed income and reforming Manitoba's democracy.

"We really need life to be more affordable for all," she said Saturday. "We need a higher quality of life for those struggling with poverty."

She also introduced the candidates running in 13 of the province's 57 ridings.

Some of Gibson's commitments include hiring nurse practitioners and other preventative health-care professionals, getting rid of the province's first-past-the-post voting system, improving food securityand lowering greenhouse gas emissions by offering incentives for those who buy electric vehicles.

"We need the change now. We need to make the changes in our systems to address the climate emergency," she said.

The party's platform has not been costed, Gibson said. She said while the party isn't planning to form government, it is prepared to collaborate with whichever party does.

Gibson also said her party supports a search of the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women, saying it could be done in a safe, more cost-effective way.

"A really good mask and a really good hazmat suit would do it," Gibson said.

She said she thinks the feasibility report that estimated the search would take up to three years and cost up to $184 million "has been influenced by institutionalized racism and sexism.

"If these were white men they would be home with their families now."

Gibson, a Steinbach-area farmer and agricultural consultant, took over from the party's former leader of 15 years, James Beddome, in March.

She is running in the Wolseley constituency, hoping to win the party's first seat in the Legislature this election after running unsuccessfully in seven federal and three provincial elections.

The party saw candidateDavid Nickarzcame in second place inWolseleyduring the 2016 election, fewer than 400 votes behind the NDP. However Nickarz lost to NDP rival Lisa Naylor by more than 900 votes in the 2019 election.