2019 Manitoba Election

Ralph McLean - The Pas - Kameesak

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

I am running because I feel northerners have been ignored for far too long. The other parties have neglected us, and it has evolved into an abusive relationship with our government. We need a stronger voice, someone who is present, engaging and proactive. We are paying for government services in the north that we are not receiving, which includes provincial and federal elected representatives who have been conspicuously absent. Greens do politics differently; we flip politics on its head and we put constituents back in charge. If I am your elected representative on election night. You are my boss, and I’m your employee. People have forgotten that government is supposed to work for you, not the other way around.

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

I am from The Pas and my family still lives here. I have come back to the community in the last couple years to fight for it because of provincial and federal government neglect and if we keep going down this path we are doomed. No one is fighting for us and no one knows we even exist. This endless seesaw of voting in the other parties is getting us zero progress. Two times zero is still zero. If I do just one thing in my time in office, it will be one thing more than either the NDP or PCs have done in the last 20 years. I can promise absolutely nothing other than fighting for you, kicking and screaming, and standing in people’s doorways to get the attention you deserve. When you mark your ballot, it is because you want progress, not to be ignored. I will give my support to any party on any vote that best helps the north. I have 12 years of billion dollar capital infrastructure project experience in a supervisory/management role where my job was to fix chaos where we had thousands of bottlenecks and production delays.

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

Greens have a platform, but it is the constituents we are fighting for, so I am not going to tell you what I am going to do, you are going to tell me what to do. Again, you are my boss if elected on election night.

My conversations with constituents at the door include a wide-ranging issues and topics. The biggest concern is health care cuts and the fact that hundreds of seniors have to travel to Winnipeg on their own dime to access basic medical services that is not available in the north. Other conversations are centered around lack of affordable housing for seniors, new arrivals to our communities and the ever-growing homeless population.

We have a substantive infrastructure deficit that has exponentially grown with decades of neglect to the point that it is now detrimental to us being able to grow in the north because we cannot encourage new people and new businesses to move here.

Critical infrastructure just in the town of The Pas needs provincial help now. Specifically, this is the sewage lagoon upgrade. If we don’t act very soon, we won’t be able to flush a toilet in 5 years.

4. Do you have any other comments regarding your candidacy?

When they were looking for volunteers, I put my hand up. When I look at the other candidates, I don’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from them, just more of the same feeling of dread. I really hope you are interested in not being ignored anymore. I have come back to fight for my hometown, the north and the riding in general. I’m fighting for every single dollar, every single job and every single person in the north. I will work with anyone from any party to ensure we see progress. If I am elected, as a Green I’m duty bound to govern in the best interests of all constituents. So regardless of your political stripe, be it Green, NDP, Liberal or PC, you are still my boss and you will still have a voice in the legislature. I want you yelling at me for four years, it will be the only way I know that something is wrong. I promise I won’t fill out a hurt feelings report. You should be mad, angry actually. Mark your ballot to stop being ignored and choose Ralph McLean Green Party of Manitoba.