Andy Maxwell
Party New Democratic Party
Constituency Swan River
About Andy Maxwell
When were you born?
Between 1946 and 1965 (Baby Boomer)
Tell our readers a bit about your professional life. What do you do for a living? If you're an incumbent candidate, what did you do before you entered politics?
Before I retired I was a dentist. I trained in London England at St.Bartholomew’s Medical School (preclinical) then at the Royal Dental Hospital in Leicester Square. After a year of house surgeon appointments I worked for a year and a half as a civilian dentist for the U.S. Army in what was then West Germany. In 1978 I moved to Swan River where I practiced until retiring. I did short stints in The Pas, Russell and Cross Lake (fly-in)
What's the highest level of education you've attained?
Degree in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or optometry
How long have you lived in the constituency? If you don't currently live there, what led you to run there instead of where you live?
I have lived in Swan River continuously since October 1978. I have lived in my present home since 1984 and also have a cabin at Wellman Lake in the Duck Mountain Provincial Park bought the same year.
What is the biggest challenge facing your constituency, and how would you address it?
Access to timely health care. To address it the first priority is to get Wab Kinew elected as head of a majority NDP Government.
To elect the PCs again is the definition of insanity as we know after two terms that a third term won’t be different, just erosion of the system to the detriment of all Manitobans and creeping privatisation which costs us more in the long run (by definition it has to show a profit, it is not about providing a service). We saw higher Covid death rates in private nursing homes for instance, and I had to pay $28,000 for each hip replacement (done privately in a month) as opposed to getting them done over two years later costing Manitoba Health about $14,000 each.
Agency nurses cost more up front, and don’t buy homes here, shop here, put their kids in our schools so erode our communities in the long term.
Wab has outlined his plan for respecting and listening to frontline workers, increasing retention foremost (stop the leak), then increasing training and recruitment which takes time; you can’t reverse course in a container ship and turn on a dime.
I would also encourage Lifelong Learning so that we all reduce our demands for healthcare by staying healthier, which is why for seven years I advocated for a Wellness and Recreation Centre in Swan River but my team was thwarted by local Regressive Conservatives on councils who did not want another success for our then NDP MLA Rosann Wowchuk. That also encompasses reducing addictions, and federally getting universal Pharmacare so people can afford necessary prescribed medications. For me that includes supplying safe drugs which has been so successful in Portugal, to reduce crime and health costs.
The big picture also means addressing manmade (anthropogenic)climate change as a matter of urgency; locally promoting geothermal and passive home construction for instance.
If elected, what will be your first priority?
First priority in Swan River would be working with others addressing the crime level.
As stated above, rebuilding healthcare and addressing manmade climate change.
Who are your role models in politics, and why?
Tommy Douglas.
Leonard Harapiak who for far too short a time (two years) was our MLA and went from the back bench to Minister of Agriculture, then Minister of Natural Resources, and ran against Gary Doer to lead the NDP when Premier Howard Pawley retired, and would have then been Premier. Pretty impressive track record for two years.
Leonard’s sister Rosann Wowchuk who was our MLA for over 20 years and rose to be Gary Doer’s ‘Minister of Everything’ and later deputy premier. Rosann got us huge infrastructure investment including a new hospital, town bypass re logging trucks, the Wellness Centre, paved Highways 83 and 10 and innumerable other projects. That was before the major boundary changes that brought in Russell and Roblin.
Tell us something about yourself that voters might find surprising.
I was born in England and became a Canadian immigrant at 18 months of age. My mother died aged 29 in Ontario (before the Canada Health Act so the bills had to be paid before the body was released - the good old days). My sister and two brothers are Canadian by birth, but my parents didn’t get around to taking out citizenship for themselves and me.
I emigrated to Canada for a second time (not an easy process) when I returned here in 1978; I took out citizenship as soon as possible (wasn’t making that mistake a second time!), then sponsored my dad and stepmother. One brother is in Quebec, the other in Ontario, and my dad’s ashes are on Vancouver Island where he lived.