Blair Mahaffy has been announced as the Green Party candidate for Provencher in next month's federal election.
Mahaffy is a lifelong resident of southeastern Manitoba. Born in Winnipeg, he spent summers in the Whiteshell, raised a family in Lorette, and now lives at West Hawk Lake. As a software developer, Mahaffy works with small, independent retailers across Canada. He also does some work as a horseback riding trail guide.
Mahaffy has been involved with the Green Party in Provencher since 2015. He says what really attracted him to the party was their position on electoral reform.
"I believe that our system needs to work more on bringing people together to share ideas and build consensus," he says. "And it's important to me to be able to work towards that goal by giving people an alternative place to vote."
Mahaffy says he was a founding member of Fair Vote Manitoba and has also been involved in Fair Vote Canada.
"Electoral reform is a big part of what I do," he says. "And of course, electoral reform means helping small parties get some voice too."
Mahaffy says his earliest experience in politics happened in high school when his teacher assigned her students to work on a campaign as part of their history course. His teacher was Sharon Carstairs, who served as the leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party for many years and later went on to be a senator. His first experience as a political candidate came in 2023 when Mahaffy ran in the riding of Lac du Bonnet, garnering 5.8 per cent of the votes.
Mahaffy says his priority with the Green Party has always been wrapped around environmentalism. Living in a forest, he says he appreciates the clean water but says the changes that are happening in the environment are concerning.
Having said that, Mahaffy says the Green Party is not a single-issue party. He says he is passionate about electoral reform.
"The complexity of the future requires that we get better at bringing many voices to the table to work through and build consensus and build lots of ideas," notes Mahaffy. "Because the threats, whether its tariffs or AI or emerging diseases need lots of ideas, not top-down thinking."
Mahaffy says another thing that needs to be addressed is the cost of living. He notes many young people and those on a fixed income are struggling. Mahaffy says the Green Party recently announced policies to eliminate federal income tax on earnings under $40,000, which would impact a lot of people.
"We're actually at a point in this country where our inequity is at the highest it's ever been with 20 per cent of Canadians that hold more than two-thirds of the country's wealth," he says. "That's a problem in creating a long-term housing society."
Mahaffy says his party also wants to close loopholes that are making it easy for criminals to use real estate to hide dirty money and stop corporations from buying single-family homes.
He says they also want to support the trades.
"We need lots of tradespeople, we need education, and we need to respect the trades and help those industries grow so that we can build affordable housing and get regulations out of the way of doing that process," he adds.
Mahaffy says what he appreciates about the Green Party is that within a certain set of values, Members of Parliament (MP) are allowed to have their own opinions on various topics. He says for both the Conservatives and Liberals it seems that too often the message comes from the party, and not the MP.
"I want to make sure that whoever we have is really approachable and takes messages upwards towards the Prime Minister and Parliament," he says.
Mahaffy says he also supports citizen assemblies, which is an extension of democracy. He says if you have a problem or an opportunity, you can bring together stakeholders.
"So, for example, if you are trying to stop problems around health care, you could bring together doctors and nurses and pharmacists and physiotherapists and psychologists and cancer patients and diabetics and say how would we improve the system," he explains. "Better than sort of doing this top-down process of the Prime Minister's office saying this is how we're going to fix things."
Meanwhile, Mahaffy says it is exciting to be running for the seat in Provencher. He looks forward to knocking on doors and meeting constituents, noting that at the end of the day, most of us want the same thing, which is to be safe and secure and to be able to enjoy an affordable lifestyle.
Canadians will head to the polls on April 28th. In eight elections since 2004, the Green Party candidate in Provencher has received anywhere from 2.6 to 6.0 per cent of the votes.