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Unifor Local 191 member Tracy Schmidt is running for the Manitoba NDP in the battleground provincial riding of Rossmere in northeast Winnipeg.
Schmidt started her labour career with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. After going back to school to become a labour and employment lawyer, she became a staff lawyer for another union in Winnipeg.
Historically, Rossmere has voted for the party that has gone on to form government, so close races like this one are targets for Unifor’s provincial election effort, especially with a member running for office.
Schmidt was born and raised in Fraser's Grove where she is raising her family with her husband.
“I have three young children who I hope will also choose to put down roots here,” said Schmidt. “In order to keep our young people here in Manitoba, we need to make sure they will have access to quality educational opportunities, a robust economy with job opportunities, quality health care, and a place they can be proud to call home.”
She says she was motivated to run for office to stop the degradation of public services she’s seen under the Pallister and now Stefanson PCs, namely health care.
“When the PCs began their deliberate dismantling of our health care system in northeast Winnipeg—closing our Concordia Emergency Room followed by the closure of the Concordia CancerCare Clinic—it soon resulted in some of the longest emergency room and surgical wait times in the country.
“In the last year I have heard from countless patients, doctors, nurses and health care professionals in Rossmere who have been impacted personally. It doesn’t have to be this way, and it hasn’t always been this way. Who we elect matters, and it’s clear to me that we need a new direction in health care,” said Schimdt.
Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle has been in Rossmere with Unifor activists to volunteer. He says members are fired up to flip the riding and see Schmidt in the front benches of a Wab Kinew government.
“Tracy’s deep roots in the community and her progressive values make her the perfect candidate to represent Rossmere,” said McGarrigle. “The Unifor volunteer team has spent many evenings in Rossmere and there’s no mistaking the appetite for change in northeast Winnipeg. We’re going to work hard to elect Tracy on October 3.”
