Residents of Provencher will head to the polls in 11 days to elect their Member of Parliament. Federal election day in Canada is April 28th.
The five candidates whose names will appear on the ballot are:
- Ted Falk (Conservative Party of Canada)
- Noel Gautron (People's Party of Canada)
- Trevor Kirczenow (Liberal Party of Canada)
- Blair Mahaffy (Green Party of Canada)
- Brandy Schmidt (New Democratic Party)
SteinbachOnline hosted a 2025 Provencher Candidates Forum, involving three participants: Noel Gautron, Trevor Kirczenow and Blair Mahaffy. All five candidates were invited to attend, however, according to Ted Falk's campaign office, his campaign calendar is very full, and he was unable to attend. Falk did however submit his opening and closing statements as well as his answers to the six questions asked. And, though we invited Brandy Schmidt through the NDP office, we did not receive a reply.
The following are the opening and closing statements (the entire forum can be viewed in the video at the bottom of this article):
Opening Statements:
Trevor Kirczenow
Thank you so much. First, I'd really like to thank Golden West for hosting us. I think this event is really important and thank you to everybody who is tuned in and listening. This is, I believe, a very important election and I appreciate everyone's attention right now. My name is Trevor Kirczenow, I am your Liberal candidate in Provencher riding. I live between Dugald and Anola on a small farm. I have a partner and two kids who play a lot of hockey. I think I have seen pretty much every single hockey arena in this riding. I have spent a lot of time driving kids to hockey. I am a professional musician; I play frequently with the Winnipeg Symphony. But I also have experience in a lot of other areas. I have done work in health research, and I also have a degree in political science. I have a very difficult last name, which I would like to explain where that comes from. My grandparents were Russian and during the second World War they were taken by the Germans and made to do forced labour in camps. After the second World War, they could not go back to Russia because Stalin would have sent them to camps in Siberia if they had tried to go back. And at that time, it was better for them to have a fake Polish spelling for their last name and then they ended up in Australia. I think that many of us in this riding have a family history/ story like this. Where families had to move and find a place where they could be safe, where they could practice their religion freely, and something that I really appreciate about our Canadian society is our respect for tolerance and diversity. I am a hard worker who can get things done. If elected, I will apply my work ethic and be a responsive, full-time Member of Parliament for Provencher.
Blair Mahaffy
Thanks for inviting me here, I'm really glad to be here. It's a long drive from my home at West Hawk Lake. But it was very worth coming in to take part in this really important discussion about our political situation here. I lived in Lorette for 20 years, so Steinbach and the area is very familiar to me. And this is a big riding, there's lots going on here. I am a software developer. But my political interests started when I was in high school and I had a teacher who sent us out to work on campaigns and I actually had to go and choose a campaign to work on. I worked on Sidney Spivak's campaign for the Progressive Conservatives. The teacher was Sharon Carstairs, who, some of you might know went on to be a Canadian Senator. So, I started off pretty young with this influence, and even though I'm in a very technical field I've always been very interested in politics. Living out in the woods like I do, I'm very focused on environmentalism, I care about the land and water. I think we need to be talking about sustainability issues. Very much into democratic reform, which is giving voice to as many people as we can and bringing people together to work on solutions that work for as many people as we possibly can.
Noel Gautron
Thank you and good afternoon. I'm Noel Gautron, your PPC candidate for Provencher. We're entering a period of change, both nationally and internationally. As a good portion of you have told me at the door and through our various conversations, that change can be very troubling. Thankfully we live in a country where it's possible to shape and mould it. It's with that in mind that I'm participating today. Bit about myself, I am a truck driver, locally. Family has been involved in politics for a great many years. My grandfather in the late 1960's actually was a campaign manager with the Liberals, if you can believe that one. Going back, the first Mayor of Lorette was a distant relative of mine. If you go back even further, direct descendant from Jean Baptist, so old fur trader routes. With that being said, thank you all for taking the time to listen to us today.
Ted Falk (via email)
It has been my great privilege to serve as MP for Provencher these past 11 years. To be the voice for Provencher views and values in Canada's Parliament. We have an amazing riding. Just recently Provencher was again named as the most generous riding in Canada. That's quite something under normal circumstances but especially when we start to think about the past nine years, particularly the past four years, as life has just gotten more and more expensive. More and more difficult for Canadians across the country including here in Provencher. Folks can't afford to buy groceries. Everyday things like eating, heating, driving, and housing are getting more and more difficult for way too many people. It's not that folks aren't working hard or are irresponsible with the money they earn. All people do is work and they still can't make ends meet. Why? Because of the disastrous policies of the past nine years. The policies of Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney and this Liberal Government have resulted in nothing less than a train wreck. This government that thinks they know better than you do how to spend your money. Taxes keep going up. Housing costs keep going up. Food inflation is steady. Crime keeps going up. The only thing that's coming down is the share of Canada's GDP per capita - the piece of the pie or wealth shared by all Canadians - and our standard of living after this lost Liberal decade. It's time for a change. Time for an ethical, responsible, commonsense Conservative government who will axe taxes, build homes, develop our resources, stop the crime, and start the long process of getting Canada back on the rails. A Government that will make life more affordable and more free for Canadians and finally put Canada first.
Closing Statements:
Blair Mahaffy
Again, thank you so much for inviting me here. It's such an important piece of the democratic process to have us on the spot to answer these questions, so I'm glad to be here. I would like to leave with a closing thought about the Green Party and what we stand for. We often hear you are a single-issue party; you are just a bunch of tree huggers. And, in a way, there's a bit of truth in that single-issue party, but it's not what people think it is. The issue is sustainability. So, whether that means sustainability for environmental reasons, climate reasons, but also democratic reform. Because what we see in the U.S. with a hyper-partisan system, it's essentially first past the post, is that that's not a sustainable democracy. When we look at social justice, when we have incredible wealth and inequality, that creates instability in your social systems. We see people getting apathetic even about voting. We have youth that aren't even coming to vote at a 40 per cent turnout, that's not sustainable. As some of the activists in world peace organizations say, it only takes three per cent of the population to create a revolution. When wealth inequity grows, it creates a more difficult to sustain economy. And social justice affects economy because people don't work as well if they are stressed and traumatized all the time. It means a sustainable economy. How do I make decisions in the changing world that are long-term. We've got a short-term issue with what's going on in the U.S. and Trump, but we need to make sustainable decisions about what happens in the long term. A kid born today is going to be 75 years old in 2100, what kind of world are we leaving for them. That's it. Thanks to both of these fellows for being here too. I appreciate it.
Noel Gautron
In closing I would like to say that the Conservative Party has lost its nerve. The soul that was inherited from the Reform Party is gone. Party bosses in Ottawa call the shots. As such, our voices here in Provencher are ignored. That's why I'm running: because we need a voice that can't be silenced and won't be controlled. It's time for reform and it starts right here. Thank you.
Trevor Kirczenow
It is time for a change in Provencher. We have had the same Conservative MP for 12 years. And what I hear when I travel all over the riding is that he is typically not responsive and he doesn't show up. This is a perfect example of that. He is not here with us today. To be a Member of Parliament you have to be willing to work hard. Democracy is hard work. To do it well, it requires having tough conversations, including with people that you might not agree with. You have to be willing to answer difficult questions. I am doing that work and I am having those conversations. During this election campaign, I am making it to every part of the riding. I have had coffee with folks in Grunthal who think that we should become the 51st state. I don't agree with them, it was an uncomfortable conversation I would say for everybody involved, but I am willing to speak with everybody, I'm willing to show up. I had coffee with some farmers in Kleefeld last week who asked me fantastic questions. And one of those questions I didn't right away know the answer and I think I might try to go back again next week because now I've done my homework. That is the work of democracy, is to respect the difficult questions, to try your best to answer them. If you don't know something, go home and learn about it and then get back to it. I want to share with voters some work that I've done that I'm really proud of in diabetes advocacy that I think is a great example of what I am capable of doing. When my oldest child was eight years old, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and I didn't know anything about diabetes at the time. I had no idea how expensive it could be. And I was shocked to learn that continuous glucose monitors were not covered in Manitoba at all. And so, I set about to change that. I got together with a group of parents and people affected by Type 1 diabetes, and we worked. We were persistent. We had meetings with MLAs from every provincial party, it didn't matter if we were speaking with a Progressive Conservative, or NDP, or Liberal, we worked with everyone. We asked the MLAs to prick their own fingers to learn more about diabetes and why we were asking for this coverage. And we were successful. That change happened. We worked together with everyone and had the necessary meetings with ministers, worked with the media and that change happened. And now Manitoba does have that Pharmacare coverage for continuous glucose monitors. And I'm incredibly proud to have been part of that. If elected as your Member of Parliament I will throw myself into that type of hard work full-time. Thank you.
Ted Falk (via email)
Provencher residents are common sense people. Canadians are common sense people. They deserve a government that has some common sense. A common-sense government that will put our country, Canada, first. We've just lived through this lost Liberal decade. Folks can't afford to buy groceries, gas, or homes. Crime is out of control. Our finances are out of control. Immigration is out of control. Our government is out of control. We've seen this country we love diminished and vandalized by the reckless, radical policies of Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney. A commonsense Canada-first Conservative government will axe taxes, build homes, responsibly develop our resources, and stop the crime. We will put Canada and Canadians first. We will leave more money in your pockets because you, Canadians know better how to spend your hard-earned money than this failed government - or any government. It's a simple choice. More of the same corrupt and failed leadership of the Liberals that has made Canada poorer and more vulnerable. Or a commonsense Canada-first Conservative government that will make Canada the freest most prosperous Country on earth where you and your family can thrive. On election day, vote for Canada, by voting for Canada's Conservatives and me, Ted Falk.