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WINNIPEG – A candidate in last year’s Manitoba provincial election has been found to have forged two signatures on her nomination form.

A report from elections commissioner Bill Bowles says Gabrielle Simard-Nadeau, who was running for the Green Party in the Steinbach constituency, was having trouble collecting the 50 signatures required to qualify as a candidate.

The report says Simard-Nadeau spoke with a friend who said two relatives would be willing to sign, and Simard-Nadeau forged their signatures because there was no time to meet with them before the deadline.

Simard-Nadeau was approved as a candidate, but Elections Manitoba announced on the day before the election, without an explanation, that she was withdrawing.

The commissioner’s report says Simard-Nadeau was an inexperienced candidate who fully admitted to the forgery and took responsibility.

The commissioner has the authority to recommend charges be laid under the Elections Act, but is not doing so in this case.

“There are several factors I have considered, none of which amount to a justification for what Ms. Simard-Nadeau did, but which do, in my view, suggest that a prosecution is not necessary,” Bowles wrote in his report issued this week.

“This was her first time being involved in an election and, although she clearly knew that she should not forge signatures, I believe she did so in the pressure of the moment without much understanding of the seriousness of the offence.”

Bowles also said Simard-Nadeau accepted responsibility and forged the names of two people she fully believed would have signed her nomination papers if there had been more time.

While no charges were laid, the commissioner and Simard-Nadeau entered into a “compliance agreement,” which requires her to read the relevant section of the Elections Act and a code of ethical conduct.

“I am satisfied that Ms. Simard-Nadeau truly regrets what she did and would never make the same mistake again,” Bowles wrote.

The leader of the Green Party of Manitoba said she takes responsibility for what happened.

“Engaging inexperienced, sometimes overenthusiastic youth in our political process means mistakes are sometimes made. This is such an example,” Janine Gibson wrote in an email Wednesday.

“Many of our youngest would-be candidates did not recognize the time and effort required to gather qualifying signatures and were not able to gather sufficient signatures in the time frame of the 2023 election.

“One made a significant wrong choice out of desperation. We as a party missed offering the support needed for this potential candidate to understand the rules and their crucial significance for fairness in our democratic process.”

A previous case of forged signatures, stemming from the 2011 provincial election, resulted in a $3,500 fine.

That case involved an official agent in the Liberal party who forged nomination signatures for two candidates and initially denied doing so when confronted.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

NDP Leader David Eby is accusing B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad of planning an “American-style” user-pays health care system for British Columbia as the provincial election campaign enters its latest stages.

All three leaders of the province’s main political parties have converged on Vancouver Island in the final stage of campaigning before election day on Saturday, with record numbers of voters already casting their ballots in advance polling.

Eby told a campaign event in Nanaimo that Rustad presents a “risk” to the health care system and he would let people “buy their way to the front of the line.”

Rustad released his party’s platform on Tuesday, which makes no mention of a user-pays health care model and instead promises a single-payer system delivering care through public and non-governmental facilities.

But the NDP has released an audio recording of Rustad at an event they say happened in August where he can be heard calling the Canadian Health Act “silly” for not allowing for user-pays health care, and that “hopefully, one day we’ll get some changes there.”

Elections BC says more than 181,000 people voted on Tuesday, breaking a record set on the first day of voting last week.

The election office says 778,000 people had already voted ahead of today’s final day of advance voting.

Rustad also had campaign events scheduled in Nanaimo for Wednesday, while Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was in Victoria.

The NDP has long regarded the island as a stronghold, but Rustad has said he regards it as winnable territory, while both of the Greens’ two current seats are on the island.

Eby will also be travelling the island for campaign events in Ladysmith, Duncan and Victoria, while Rustad will be spending much of the day in Nanaimo where he also has an evening campaign rally at a hotel.

British Columbians finally saw the B.C. Conservatives’ platform costings on Tuesday, which Rustad said would result in a deficit nearing $11 billion in the first year of government.

That is more than either the NDP or Greens forecast under their costings, and Rustad said he would balance the books some time in his second term with help from a predicted 5.4 per cent annual economic growth.

Rustad said his platform would get the provincial economy growing with strategic new spending, the reallocation of wasteful NDP funding to priority areas, a core review and audit of NDP spending, including a revision of current and planned government capital projects.

He called the NDP’s spending “reckless” and said the government had “spent a lot on ideology.”

The NDP said Rustad’s costings, released four days before election day, meant he would have to “cut supports for people” and he was “making it up as he goes along.”

Furstenau said Rustad was relying on “magical thinking” by predicting 5.4 per cent growth, “without any plan on how to achieve this.”

The NDP and Green platforms would both boost the deficit by about $2.9 billion in the first year, resulting in a $9.6 billion budget shortfall.

The BC Teachers’ Federation and the Canadian Union of Public Employees British Columbia released a joint letter to members on Wednesday, encouraging them to vote NDP.

In the letter, BCTF President Clint Johnston and CUPE BC President Karen Ranalletta say that Rustad has “demonstrated a lack of respect” for the public school system.

“When we look at the platforms of the parties seeking to govern our province, we are encouraged to see three significant commitments in the BC NDP platform that we think are game changers,” it said.

This, the letter said, includes Eby’s promises of having a full-time counsellor in every school, an education assistant in every K-3 classroom and public delivery of affordable before and after-school care in every district.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

NDP Leader David Eby is accusing B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad of planning an “American-style” user-pays health care system for British Columbia as the provincial election campaign enters its latest stages.

All three leaders of the province’s main political parties have converged on Vancouver Island in the final stage of campaigning before election day on Saturday, with record numbers of voters already casting their ballots in advance polling.

Eby told a campaign event in Nanaimo that Rustad presents a “risk” to the health care system and he would let people “buy their way to the front of the line.”

Rustad released his party’s platform on Tuesday, which makes no mention of a user-pays health care model and instead promises a single-payer system delivering care through public and non-governmental facilities.

But the NDP has released an audio recording of Rustad at an event they say happened in August where he can be heard calling the Canadian Health Act “silly” for not allowing for user-pays health care, and that “hopefully, one day we’ll get some changes there.”

Elections BC says more than 181,000 people voted on Tuesday, breaking a record set on the first day of voting last week.

The election office says 778,000 people had already voted ahead of today’s final day of advance voting.

Rustad also had campaign events scheduled in Nanaimo for Wednesday, while Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was in Victoria.

The NDP has long regarded the island as a stronghold, but Rustad has said he regards it as winnable territory, while both of the Greens’ two current seats are on the island.

Eby will also be travelling the island for campaign events in Ladysmith, Duncan and Victoria, while Rustad will be spending much of the day in Nanaimo where he also has an evening campaign rally at a hotel.

British Columbians finally saw the B.C. Conservatives’ platform costings on Tuesday, which Rustad said would result in a deficit nearing $11 billion in the first year of government.

That is more than either the NDP or Greens forecast under their costings, and Rustad said he would balance the books some time in his second term with help from a predicted 5.4 per cent annual economic growth.

Rustad said his platform would get the provincial economy growing with strategic new spending, the reallocation of wasteful NDP funding to priority areas, a core review and audit of NDP spending, including a revision of current and planned government capital projects.

He called the NDP’s spending “reckless” and said the government had “spent a lot on ideology.”

The NDP said Rustad’s costings, released four days before election day, meant he would have to “cut supports for people” and he was “making it up as he goes along.”

Furstenau said Rustad was relying on “magical thinking” by predicting 5.4 per cent growth, “without any plan on how to achieve this.”

The NDP and Green platforms would both boost the deficit by about $2.9 billion in the first year, resulting in a $9.6 billion budget shortfall.

The BC Teachers’ Federation and the Canadian Union of Public Employees British Columbia released a joint letter to members on Wednesday, encouraging them to vote NDP.

In the letter, BCTF President Clint Johnston and CUPE BC President Karen Ranalletta say that Rustad has “demonstrated a lack of respect” for the public school system.

“When we look at the platforms of the parties seeking to govern our province, we are encouraged to see three significant commitments in the BC NDP platform that we think are game changers,” it said.

This, the letter said, includes Eby’s promises of having a full-time counsellor in every school, an education assistant in every K-3 classroom and public delivery of affordable before and after-school care in every district.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.