Manitoba had a provincial election on Wednesday.
The province’s New Democratic Party made history yesterday by winning its fourth straight majority.
A “majority” is when a party has more seats in the legislature than the other parties combined. (Seats in the legislature means the number of Members of Provincial Parliament, or MPPs, in the provincial government.)
Greg Selinger, the leader of the Manitoba NDP, will remain the province’s premier, a position he has held since 2009.
Selinger defeated the Progressive Conservatives. Its leader, Hugh McFadyen, said he will step down as soon as his party can find someone to replace him.
Selinger’s NDP took 37 of the 57 seats in the Manitoba legislature. The Conservatives took 19 seats and the Liberals took one.
They will have to recount the votes in a couple of ridings, because they were so close. However, no matter how the elections in those ridings turn out it won’t affect the NDP’s majority.
Selinger told his supporters that his party had worked together, for a cause greater than themselves, to make Manitoba better.
The province of Manitoba is doing well, the CTV news website reports, and with low unemployment, “a strong housing market and the recent return of the National Hockey League to Winnipeg, voters stuck with the party that has held power since 1999.”
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
The NDP has had a majority of seats in the Manitoba provincial government for over 10 years. What good and bad things might happen when a government stays the same for a long time? In your opinion, are there more good things or bad things?
Reading Prompt
Primary
Read appropriate texts at a sufficient rate and with sufficient expression to convey the sense of the text readily to the reader and an audience (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Junior & Intermediate
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Grammar Feature: Parentheses ( )
Parentheses are punctuation marks that go on either sides of words or statements. They are used to explain or clarify the other information in the sentence. In these situations, the period at the end of the sentence always goes outside the last parenthesis. But did you know that when a whole sentence is in parentheses the period goes inside the final punctuation mark? Look for yourself!
(Seats in the legislature means the number of Members of Provincial Parliament, or MPPs, in the provincial government.)
In the following examples, place a period in the correct location.
1. (Jimmy didn’t know she was there)
2. He needed to pay her ($35)
3. (The car was grey and old)
4. (She wasn’t very friendly, but she had a nice puppy)
5. Suzie liked her class (although she was afraid of the pet rat)
