About Roy Jemison
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?
I am a communications and political consultant with an extensive background in print and broadcast media sales, advertising agency account management, copywriting, graphic design, publishing and digital communications. My first career was as a meteorological technician (upper air weather observer) and ozone observer with Environment Canada and a flight services specialist with Nav Canada, serving at various postings across Canada's far north, including Churchill in the Thompson constituency where I lived for several years. My meteorological science background has informed a lifelong interest in climate and concern about climate change, and fueled my involvement in a new role to help grow Manitoba's solar energy industry.
What's the highest level of education you've attained?
College, CEGEP or other non-university certificate or diploma
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 lived in the constituency for 3 years in Churchill but do not currently reside there. What led me to run there is my love for the North and concern for its future. I have lived in small communities across Northern Canada over the years in addition to Churchill, including the Inuit hamlet of Qausuittuq (Resolute, NU), Salliq (Coral Harbour, NU), and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (Big Trout Lake, ON), which share many common as well as their own unique challenges. I also have a particular concern for the magnified impacts of climate change in Northern Manitoba, and the various schemes being floated for building pipelines to Hudson Bay to give Canada's oil patch access to tidewater. While I'm not opposed to responsible development in the North, we need to be very careful in how we go about it, protect our water and wildlife, and ensure First Nations are fully consulted and Indigenous rights respected.
What is the biggest challenge facing your constituency, and how would you address it?
Health care for northern First Nations is in a particularly dire state of emergency from lack of staff and resources in federally and provincially operated health care facilities, while health care in Thompson and other communities across the constituency and Manitoba isn't much better. Nurses especially are leaving the system in droves because they're being burned out from overwork and not enough support. Our goal is to grow Manitoba’s public health care system and make it stable for future generations, starting with solving the staffing issue by immediately offering retention bonuses of $10,000 to nurses and health professionals in the public system and a $5,000 bonus to Healthcare Workers and Team Members, including homecare workers. A separate $10,000 bonus will be issued for nurses and health professionals who return to the public system. We also need to train more people from the north to work in the north, and we would establish a Doctor of Medicine (MD) Degree Program at the University of Brandon affiliated with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine focused on training physicians for rural and northern communities.
If elected, what will be your first priority?
To visit every community in the constituency and hear people's concerns.
Who are your role models in politics, and why?
I was born in England so my childhood idol was British World War II hero Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, until I got older and found out what he was really like. After emigrating to Canada as a child, growing-up it became Lester B. Pearson and then Pierre Elliot Trudeau, as well as Tommy Douglas, the founder of Medicare. I still hate John Diefenbaker.
Tell us something about yourself that voters might find surprising.
I lived and worked for a good number of years north of the Arctic Circle, have been surrounded alone in the dark by a pack of Arctic wolves in the middle of the night, and was once threatened by an angry lemming.
Other candidates in constituency:
Linda Markus (Progressive Conservative)
Eric Redhead (New Democratic Party)