Conservatives try to win east Winnipeg NDP stronghold by tying leader Singh to Liberals

The federal Conservatives are trying to use the New Democratic Party's two-year association with the unpopular governing Liberals as a means of wresting a longtime Winnipeg stronghold away from the NDP in an upcoming byelection.

On Sept. 16, voters in Elmwood-Transcona will choose a new MP to replace Daniel Blaikie, who resigned from the House of Commons in March after spending eight and a half years as the NDP representative for the eastern Winnipeg riding.

The NDP has won 10 out of the 11 elections held in Elmwood-Transcona and its predecessor riding, Winnipeg-Transcona, since the formation of this electoral district in 1988.

The Conservatives won the riding once, in 2011. They're now trying to reclaim Elmwood-Transcona in the absence of an NDP incumbent — and by attempting to associate NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the eyes of voters.

For weeks, the campaign for Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds has erected signs featuring Singh and Trudeau, calling the NDP leader "sellout Singh" due to his party's confidence-and-supply arrangement with the federal Liberals.

The governance agreement, which was struck in 2022, committed the NDP to supporting the Liberal government on confidence votes in exchange for legislative commitments on NDP priorities, such as pharmacare and dental care.

Singh ended the arrangement Wednesday, stating Trudeau "will always cave to corporate greed" and there is "a bigger battle ahead" against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who he claimed will cut spending "to give more to big corporations and wealthy CEOs."

Running against one party by tying them to another is unusual, and "kind of a particular strategy at this moment in time," said Royce Koop, a political studies professor at the University of Manitoba.

"The Liberals are very unpopular. They're certainly not competitive in that seat," and so the Conservatives' attempt to tie the NDP to them "makes some sense," he said.

"But you don't see that all the time."

The day after Singh ended the confidence-and-supply agreement, Reynolds emailed a letter to Leila Dance, the NDP candidate in Elmwood-Transcona, asking whether she would vote to bring down the Liberal government in a confidence motion if she is elected on Sept. 16.

"I am promising the hardworking people of Elmwood-Transcona that if elected, I will vote non-confidence in the Trudeau-Singh government to trigger a carbon tax election," Reynolds said in the letter, which the Conservative campaign shared.

"Ms. Dance, will you commit to doing the same? Yes or no?"

The Conservatives did not respond to a CBC News request to speak to Reynolds.