MANITOBA POLITICIANS GEAR UP FOR APRIL 19, SO DOES DISABILITY MATTERS
As the writ officially drops for the Manitoba General Election, Disability Matters: Vote 2016 is, organized, mobilized and ready to influence the polls April 19.
“We had over 1,600 people show up at the launch at the Legislative Building on December 3, 2015, the response on social media and through emails and phone calls to the campaign has been overwhelming,” said Malinda Roberts, spokesperson for the campaign.
Disability Matters: Vote 2016 (DMV2016) has identified the 16 key swing ridings where the margin of success was less than 15% in the last election. Those ridings will be key in deciding who will lead the province for the next 4 years.
“We have Constituency Captains in each of those ridings who all have a team of volunteers who will be door-knocking, placing yard signs, calling constituents and generally ensuring that the candidates in their area answer our key questions,” said Allen Mankewich, DMV2016 spokesperson.
DMV2016 has already met with each of the four main parties to give them information on the 5 priorities for the campaign and asked each party to send a response to questions by April 1 to be posted on the website. DMV2016 has also organized an all-party debate for March 31 at the Norwood Hotel at 10 am.
“We’ve been told that this is the most organized non-political campaign of its kind in the country for the disability sector,” said Roberts, “we expect to have a huge turnout on election day and will work tirelessly until April 19 to make our collective voices heard.”
The campaign in a nutshell: DMV2016 is a NON PARTISAN campaign to raise awareness of the issues and make them part of the conversation, support people who care about disabilities to know the issues and where each party stands and last, to support people with disabilities to be able to participate in the election.
Who does the campaign represent? This campaign represents ALL disabilities: physical, mental/emotional, intellectual/developmental and sensory disabilities.
How many people does this campaign represent? 175,000 Manitobans have disabilities and this is growing every year. This campaign represents those people, their families and every person who works in the field….a lot of people, enough to swing the election.