Robinson running for NDP in Brandon-Souris
April 21, 2025, 9:22 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Quentin Robinson is not a stranger to campaign races. Back in 2023, he ran in the provincial election and was under 100 votes shy of claiming an NDP victory in Brandon West. Now, his sights are on the federal election, running under that same orange banner in the Brandon-Souris riding.
“I ran provincially in Brandon West back in 2023 and I was spurred to do that because I recognized that there were really significant needs in the community that I live in,” he said. “Essentially, it’s the same thing that propels me now to run in Brandon-Souris because the issues that I was concerned about in Brandon West didn’t go away.”
He says rural areas are being hit especially hard, and tariff threats from the U.S. are not helping matters.
“There are always issues of towns becoming depopulated and services being withdrawn has been an issue for quite a while,” Robinson said. “And right now with tariff issues, people are hurting on the farms, and so throughout our riding in different ways there’s still great need.”
Robinson also feels the time in his life is right to run, saying he has the availability to devote time and energy to a campaign.
“When the bell rings for democracy, somebody’s got to answer,” he said. “I think this is my time and I’m in a place where I can answer.”
Robinson has spent 30 years as a United Church minister and Family Counsellor, and feels drawing on the talents from those experiences is something the riding needs in a leader.
“My heart and soul has been in helping people through the struggles of life, and this is another way of doing that,” he said. “So this is really an extension of who I am and what I’ve been about for a long time.
“If our view of the society and the people within it is numbers-based in some way, we miss something really important,” Robinson continued. “We miss the humanity. We miss what the real struggles are.”
With a nod to CCF hero and first NDP leader Tommy Douglas, who was a Baptist minister, Robinson hopes that maybe history will repeat itself given his similar background to the Douglas.
“The NDP has a long history with ministers,” Robinson replied when asked what attracted him to the party. “It’s great to have the opportunity to remind people who maybe have forgotten about that, or for those who don’t know the depth of history, the connection between sort of a calling of faith and a calling in society.”
Continuing with those roots of Medicare, Robinson pointed to a continued pressure from the NDP to expand those services to dental care, pharmacare, and birth control. These were also items constituents have been telling him are important to them as well.
“The need for the basics of life, to make sure that we have a basic food package that’s within people’s ability to pay, and that we really push forward if we’re talking about housing, we really have to accept affordable housing,” Robinson said when asked what he’s hearing from people. “If we’re going to give tax breaks, we should give tax breaks to people who need it most—not those who already have the most tax breaks. And when I talk to people about this, almost universally, people’s heads are nodding. They say ‘yes, that’s what we need’.”
In the rural areas, Robinson is hearing from producers concerned about the U.S. tariffs, carbon tax, and the need for faster internet services.
Transition planning for producers is another strong concern given the ever-rising cost of everything and implications of capital gains tax rules.
“People want to know how they can pass their farms along to the next generation, and so transition planning is a challenging thing when equipment and land has become so expensive,” Robinson said. “How does a young generation get a chance to step into a business that’s so expensive, and there’s real concern about capital gains and the implications of how that is imposed at the time of a farm transition. It’s possible that when the transition time comes, if the turnover of the property to another generation is deemed as a sale of all assets, now the capital gains becomes due at that moment, potentially, and that becomes a huge burden for the family because they haven’t actually gotten any money out of that.”
Overall, Robinson feels the NDP has gained a swell of support in southwest Manitoba.
“Right now in Brandon-Souris, there’s great strength in the NDP,” he confirmed. “We can see that from the provincial election that we won Brandon East, almost won Brandon West. Granted, the support was leaner in rural areas, but in general, there’s quite a lot of support. But supporters have to feel and believe that if they choose NDP at the federal level, they will actually have a chance to bring about a result that they want.”
