2019 Manitoba Election

Andrew Podolecki - Portage La Prairie

1. Why did you decide to run in the Manitoba election?

The changes and cuts in the public services have been harming Manitobans, and now there are indications that our economy is slowing and peoples earnings are no longer growing.

As a former health-care worker the cuts and changes have been extremely detrimental to the quality of our care along with supporting front line workers. Instead of just voicing my displeasure, i decided to be an advocate by putting my name forward to run in saying, people need an advocate who will stand up for vital public services and helping people get ahead in life.

2. Why should a voter consider electing you to represent them?

I would be a tireless advocate for their community no matter the issue, regardless of how big or small the issue may be. I would welcome all peoples opinions and keep an open-door policy to ideas and suggestions regardless of political opinions to ensure good community growth and a strong local advocate to the community.

3. What key issue(s) / topic(s) will you stand for in your role as MLA, and why are these important to you?

Health-care: The changes and cuts to health-care have led to longer wait-times, over-worked and over-stressed staff, and a deterioration of the quality of health-care. As a former health-care worker, I understand the importance of improving health-care is listening to the front-line workers and meeting the needs they have, to perform their jobs properly to improve patient outcomes and reduce wait times.

Affordability:
-Keep vital public services and crown corporations in the hands of the public instead of privatizing.
-Raise minimum wage to $15/hr.
-reverse the cuts to rent assist.
-Keep tuition frozen to the rate of inflation to keep post-secondary affordable.
-Keep student loans interest-free to keep debts minimized.
-We will also NOT bring in a health-care premium which the PCs have continued to dodge in answering.

Environment: I want to  build a sustainable economy to reduce our impact on the environment, and cleaning up Lake Winnipeg.
-Support the funding of the North End Pollution Centre to reduce Nitrogen and Phosphorus run-offs.
-Reverse the 50/50 transit funding cuts to fund proper transit services to reduce car use.
-Support Cap and Trade carbon pricing plan to make big polluters pay.
-Make Manitoba Hydro a truly Green Company by investing in Solar, Wind, and Geothermal energy.