Riding Talk

See information, reaction and views of Manitobans about the election in Winnipeg South Centre »man

Infrequently Asked Questions

Winnipeg South Centre

• Rachel Heinrichs (NDP)
• Trevor Kennerd (Conservative)
• Anita Neville (Liberal)
• Vere Scott (Green Party)

Rachel Heinrichs (NDP)

What is a pressing issue unique to your riding, and what would you do about it?

"Child care in my area is a really big issue and a lack of available, affordable high quality child care spaces," Heinrichs said.

The NDP would create a national child care plan, she said, ensuring that children receive the high quality child care they need. The plan "will allow parents to be able to do what they need to do," she said.

What do you like least about politics?

Heinrichs hates the stereotype about politicians.

"I hate the word politician - it's a dirty word."

"This connotation implies that people are two-faced and they're liars and they don't keep their word and have slip tongues."

This bothers her because there are politicians who want to see change and "are really in this to change the things we see around us that need to be fixed and improved in our society," she said.

What is your riding's best-kept secret?

"Ooh, there's so many," Heinrichs said. She said she couldn't pick just one secret between Osborne Village and Corydon Avenue.

"There is just so much life and vibrancy."

She strongly recommended that people spend more time in these people-friendly areas.

What is the best advice you've ever received?

Heinrichs said her high school principal told her that she could do anything she wanted as long as she set her mind to it and didn't give up.

She admits it's a simple piece of advice. Yet she thinks about this nugget from time to time and feels it's important that everybody knows this.

"If anyone is determined to do something and they stick with it, they usually find a way to make it happen."

What book could you not finish?

Heinrichs loves to read so it's rare that she doesn't finish a book. After spending a few moments of searching her memory bank, nothing came to mind.

"I can't think of a book that I've never finished, "she said. "I just can't stand not having it done."

What is your usual mode of transportation?

"I take the bus a lot," she said. "I don't have a car of my own, so I tend to take the bus."

View Rachel Heinrichs' Canada Votes Profile »

By Lisa Magnusson, a student in the Creative Communications program at Red River College.

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Trevor Kennerd (Conservative)

What is a pressing issue unique to your riding, and what would you do about it?

"There is a very serious issue in Winnipeg South Centre and that is basically the level of crime, both property crime and there's some violent crimes," he said.

"One of my favourite rock albums of all time was Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart, [and] here in Winnipeg South Centre every citizen has a story about crime, either they were victimized or their neighbour was -- and if you talk to them it's more than one story."

The solution lies not just in locking up the offenders, but also tackling the root causes of crime, he said.

What do you like least about politics?

"The überpartisanship I see out there," said Kennerd.

Often people vote primarily for the party they always vote for, without seeing which party could do best overall to improve their lives, he said.

What is your riding's best-kept secret?

"We have some of the greatest restaurants and bistros in probably North America and maybe even the world," Kennerd said. "Our cuisine, the variety of foods, whether it's Italian or Greek or Indian."

Kennerd drew attention to Corydon Avenue, Academy Road, Grant Avenue, Pembina Highway and and Osborne Village for live music, Irish pubs and Chinese food.

"It's a Folklorama of entertainment, of cuisine and of people," he said.

What is the best advice you've ever received??

Kennerd's parents always encouraged him and his twin brother to follow their hearts and dreams, whatever it was, he said. Both succeeded in fulfilling their dream of playing professional football, despite facing obstacles of small stature and much teasing.

"God gives us talents, that there's something in each of us that we will be passionate about, that we will love to do," Kennerd they told him.

"If you love something enough, it will give up all of its secrets."

What book could you not finish?

Kennerd remembers very well a book that was required reading for English class" Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler.

"It was like sticking pins and needles in me reading that book," he said. "It left a memory, but not a pleasant one."

What is your usual mode of transportation?

"If it's in our community, my wife and I love to walk. My next favourite mode of transportation is riding our bikes, we love riding our bikes," he said.

But for business, Kennerd said he drives a car.

View Trevor Kennerd's Canada Votes Profile »

By Lisa Magnusson, a student in the Creative Communications program at Red River College.

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Anita Neville (Liberal)

What is a pressing issue unique to your riding, and what would you do about it?

"What I'm hearing -- and it's not unique to my riding, although it has individual characteristics in this riding -- is childcare," Neville said.

The incumbent candidate said many people in her riding have come forward to raise concerns about not being able to find child care, and waiting lists that are more than 25 children deep.

What do you like least about politics?

Neville dislikes when the public is misinformed, something she says she finds a lot in the messages of rival parties.

I just brought in the brochure from my Conservative opponent and the misinformation in that is duplicitous and unfair and disrespectful of the constituents of the community," she said.

What is your riding's best-kept secret?

"One of the things that come to mind immediately is the Electrical Museum," said Neville. The small museum is run by volunteer Manitoba Hydro retirees, and traces the history of electricity in Manitoba.

"Not a lot of people know about that," she said.

What is the best advice you've ever received?

"I try, really, to only speak when I know what I'm speaking about," she said, then recalled words of advice she heard when she was first elected federally in 2000.

"One of my close friends and political mentors said to me, 'Keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open for the first while, until you know what it's all about.' And that was very good advice."

What book could you not finish?

"I'm a little reluctant to give the name of a book that I didn't finish because I didn't like it, because it was trashy and I thought I was getting an escape," she said.

What is your usual mode of transportation?

"It's usually by car," said Neville, noting she is often rushing from one meeting to the next.

View Anite Neville's Canada Votes Profile »

By Lisa Magnusson, a student in the Creative Communications program at Red River College.

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Vere Scott (Green Party)

What is a pressing issue unique to your riding, and what would you do about it?

"I think one of the problems is Osborne Street itself," Scott said. "It splits the two communities in half -- it always has and people generally accept it as inevitable. But it really is a barrier to getting Riverview and Lord Roberts feeling as a community."

Another issue is the pollution that comes from the traffic, the snarl ups in Osborne Village and on Jubilee Avenue.

"If you walk on Osborne during heavy traffic, you really need a gas mask," said Scott. He believes there needs to be more investment in public transit and bicycle trails.

What do you like least about politics?

Scott said his biggest beef is pressure from well-meaning peers to conform where they think he ought.

"They're trying to do a Preston Manning on me: do my hair, contacts, and shape me into an image of what they think it is the media requires," he said.

That homogenizes politics, he said: "You're not supposed to be who you are, because you may not be marketable."

What is your riding's best-kept secret?

Scott said there's quite a few, but he immediately referred to the undeveloped parts of Churchill Parkway.

"It's as natural as it was when the Selkirk Settlers were here," he said, referring to one area that doesn't have even a trail cut through it.

He also mentioned land that parallels the CN mainline, home to many natural grasses and flowers, which attract a lot of biodiversity, eh said.

"It's really quite exciting for people who like natural history," he said.

What is the best advice you've ever received?

"Be yourself."

Scott said there are pressures on a politician to be someone else - because "it's more marketable."

What book could you not finish?

"[Leo Tolstoy's] War and Peace -- that's the one everyone says, but I don't typically read novels and hence I don't run into the trouble of not finishing them," he said.

Scott said he typically reads non-fiction, scanning them and taking from them what he needs.

What is your usual mode of transportation?

Scott takes public transit, in part because he can't afford a car.

He also rides a bicycle, he said, and admitted he sometimes breaks the law by riding on the sidewalk, "just because I value my life and I'm not going to compete with thousands of tons of steel."

His ideal solution would be bicycle paths that are functional.

"That's what we are lacking in Winnipeg, plus heavy reinvestment in public transit."

View Vere Scott's Canada Votes Profile »

By Lisa Magnusson, a student in the Creative Communications program at Red River College.

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