With a provincial election less than two weeks away, voters in Morden-Winkler will see three names on the ballot. Winkler's Carrie Hiebert the Progressive Conservative Candidate, Morden's Ken Friesen for the New Democratic Party, and Winnipeg's Mattison Froese the Liberal Party Candidate.
Winnipeg's Mattison Froese has been serving as a Regional Director for the Manitoba Liberal Party.
"I currently work at Cambrian Credit Union, and I graduated with a degree in Business Admin from the University of Winnipeg. I've been involved with Liberal Party for over five years, and it's been important to me to provide local representation and to get involved at the provincial level, which a lot of people ignore, even though it affects so much of our day to day lives in healthcare and education."
Froese explained why he chose to run in the Morden-Winkler riding.
"I'm running in Morden-Winkler specifically because it's an area that appealed very much to me in how it's rapidly growing despite being a bit smaller. It shows a way of helping Manitoba grow larger and particularly, we're one of a bit of a smaller provinces, being able to grow like that. To have an integrated community is a very good thing to have, especially as having more people becomes more important in the service-based economy."
He said the top three issues facing the riding are Education, Housing and Healthcare.
"We definitely need to invest to make sure our education systems are continuing to grow and to support our children with rapidly changing times of what's required in education, especially as the world grows more and more digital.
And I think that the PCs have been taking a lot of rural ridings for granted because they always get elected, and they need to be shown they can't take these writings for granted. They need to show attention and to help these ridings."
He went on to praise something happening in the riding.
"The Central Housing Program that is happening in Morden-Winkler, I think, is a great thing and is an example of what we should be investing more in. It helps with new people moving to the area and it can help keep housing prices down. We should be investing more, as a province as a whole and in the rapidly growing areas, to support that.
It helps deal with the homeless population for people who are home insecure who need that support. People who have a stable home can more effectively get their jobs, and improve themselves, and become more productive citizens."
Froese stated the provincial government has been underfunding healthcare in services cuts, not matching inflation, or through wages for workers, leading to a shortage of workers in the healthcare field.
Froese acknowledged affordability is a national problem referring to rising housing prices in Toronto and Vancouver, adding grocery prices are going up as well making it harder for people to put money into savings and are living month to month.
You can find a full list of candidates for all constituencies in Manitoba here.
Advance voting begins Saturday, September 23rd, and runs through September 30th. Polls will be open 8am to 8pm Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6pm on Sunday. Election day is October 3rd, and polls will be open 8am to 8pm that day.
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