Electrician named PC candidate for Point Douglas riding

Manitoba's Progressive Conservative party has a new name on its roster.

At a Thursday nomination meeting attended by Premier Brian Pallister and severalPC cabinet ministers, members voted in newcomer Jodi Moskalas the party's candidate for the Point Douglas riding.

The journeyman electrician and former Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce chair will represent the partyin the historically NDP area.

The PCs only got 17 per cent of the vote in that riding in the last provincial election but Moskal said she's readyfor the challenge.

"I know how to get dirty.I'm an electrician. I've been in crawl spaces. I've climbed ladders. I've apprenticed apprentices. I've got women into the trades," she said.

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Pallister hashinteda byelection for Point Douglas, to fill the seat left empty by the resignation of the NDP's Kevin Chief,will be held in June.

Chief got 58 per cent of the vote when he won the seat.

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Moskal, who is also the vice-president of Moskal Electric Ltd., said she's counting on her belief that the people of Point Douglas are ready for a change.

"We signed up members from all parties," she said."[Some had] never been a PC member before, some were card-holding members of other parties. They weren't happy. They told us what they wanted:jobs, security. 'Look after my kids, look after my grandkids.'"

Moskal won the candidacy over two other nominees:Tim Diack, a former member of the Winnipeg Police Service, andAlexa Rosentreter, the general manager ofMerit Motion Pictures.