Carla Compton – NDP MLA Discusses the Jewish Community, Antisemitism, and Israel

I recently, had the pleasure of interviewing Carla Compton, the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Tuxedo. Carla won the recent 2024 Tuxedo by-election as the New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate.

The Tuxedo by-election, which was held on June 18th, was for the former Premier Heather Stefanson’s old seat.

Heather Stefanson led the PCs into a crushing defeat at the October 3rd, 2023 Manitoba general election. However, she managed to retain her own seat, which was one of only three Tory seats left in Winnipeg. Having announced her resignation as leader of the PCs in January, she would also resign her seat a few months later, thereby triggering the by-election.

Following a short campaign, the Manitoba NDP candidate Carla Compton won the seat. Her victory was a narrow upset, winning by only roughly 600 votes against Progressive Conservative Candidate Lawrence Pinsky, overturning a traditional conservative stronghold. The final vote tally was: 3,777 (NDP), 3,175 (CON), 569 (LIB), and 118 (GREEN).

The results are a substantial change from the 2019 Manitoba General Election in which Carla came 3rd place as the NDP candidate in her first-ever attempt at running for office. For comparison, in 2019, the vote tally was 4,645 (CON), 2,287 (LIB), 1,921 (NDP), and 793 (GREEN).

Throughout the run-up to the by-election, Carla made reforming the medical system a cornerstone of her campaign. Drawing on her 18 years of experience as a registered nurse, Carla criticized Tory budget cuts and said, “It’s been really tough working in healthcare.” She continued, saying that the system was failing on multiple levels, for both staff and patients, “I’ve seen colleagues leaving the profession and just seen my patients struggling.”

Carla has worked across the healthcare system. She explained that “my actual clinical experience is quite varied. I worked in general surgery, day surgery, pre-admission education clinics for people going for surgery. I have worked in medicine, palliative care, pediatrics, labour and delivery, postpartum, public health, and hemodialysis.”

Carla told me she hopes her professional experience in healthcare will be an asset. “I really feel like I could bring direct frontline healthcare experience to the government’s table that hasn’t hasn’t had that direct connection in a little while.” It’s not just about her, though, but also the people around her in government. Carla is optimistic, saying, “I believe that this government has a strong team commitment to fixing healthcare and wanting to listen to the frontline healthcare workers, knowing that there are lots of really good solutions from the frontlines, and we want to be able to make good changes that are going to improve healthcare for everyone.”

Another one of Carla’s priorities on healthcare reform is education, in part due to her broad clinical background. She said, “I am what they call a preceptor. So I’ve been very involved with training new nurses into my specialty of hemodialysis, for example.”

As a result, Carla really values education within the system. She said one of the most important aspects of this was training, particularly regarding stress and mental health. “You know, training people to make sure they’re supported. I have a personal interest around burnout and stress management in nurses and other high stress healthcare professions. I believe in supporting people to have the tools and skills to navigate what it means to be able to keep serving people. Those of us that feel called to serve people. It’s not uncommon that we can burn out, right? I think it’s really important that people have the skills to be able to keep serving people That they feel called to serve.”

Beyond healthcare reform, Carla said that one of her big hopes is to “find what we have in common.” Carla explained this means what we have in common for “goals, solutions, and desires in life.” She outlined three priorities: “affordability, reforming healthcare, and having safe communities are focuses.”

Carla then called for unity and promised to reach out and listen to people from all walks of life, and political stripes. “My hope is that by being able to work together as a government, we can get solutions that don’t require us to be fractured unnecessarily and that we can collaborate and find solutions that work for people.”

One part of reaching out was beginning a dialogue with the Jewish community, which is currently experiencing unprecedented levels of antisemitism in Canada. Regarding antisemitism, Carla said, “We’ve been hearing from leaders in the Jewish community about the increase in antisemitism. We’re all very concerned, and want to do what we can do to increase the safety within the community. I want to do what I can to help.”

I asked Carla to explain what she thought were possible solutions/strategies to combat the growing antisemitism in Canada. Carla, again, returned to the importance of education and safety. She admitted that the need for education included herself, saying, “I want to learn more about where and what’s happening so that I can be part of the solutions to helping the community be safe.”

In addition, Carla pointed out that since coming to power, the Manitoba NDP has made combating antisemitism a focus and has made tangible steps to do so. “I know one of the things they’re working on is <the inclusion of> Holocaust education.” Reflecting on the significance of adding this to the school curriculum, Carla said, “I think it’s important to know history so we do not repeat what has happened.”

Another important issue to the Jewish community is the war in Gaza. So, I asked for Carla’s thoughts on the situation and how she sees her role as MLA regarding the issue. Carla said, “I feel that the Premier, Wab Kinew, was a good example. He was one of the first elected officials to call for a ceasefire while also acknowledging that Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself, and that we care about human rights for all people.”

Obviously, as an MLA Carla cannot direct the course or outcome of the war. However, locally she believes her role during these trying times is to “increase the safety within the community.” Moreover, she added that she wants, “For everyone to feel that they can be who they are and be safe to be who they are in their community, going to school, going to work, or just living their lives.

Ending our conversation, Carla reiterated her desire to reach out and connect with her constituents, and welcomed members of the community to contact her via email: Carla.Compton@yourmanitoba.ca