Goertzen remembers Altomare as friend who crossed party lines
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Trustworthy, a friend to all, and someone who cared about Manitoba’s children is how Nello Altomare is being remembered by those who knew him.
Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen, a close friend of Altomare’s, remembers him as someone who was willing to work with the opposition and who was a friend.
“It’s interesting, right, because often people don’t think that people in different political parties can maintain a friendship and sometimes that doesn’t happen, but Nello was one of those individuals who was easy to have a friendship with, even if they were in a different political party and even if you had strong disagreements with the issues,” said Goertzen.

Altomare died last week after a lengthy battle with Hodgkin Lymphoma. He was 61 years old.
It was during his time as education critic that Altomare first reached out to Goertzen who was education and childhood learning minister. The two would meet for coffee and discuss issues in an informal and “off the record way.”
“I remember that he very much wanted to improve the education system and he was willing to provide that opportunity for improvement whether he was in government or in opposition. And that doesn’t happen a lot and probably doesn’t happen as much as it should,” said Goertzen.
Prior to his political career, Altomare was a teacher and principal in the River East School Division. He was elected as MLA for Transcona in 2019 and was sworn in as education and childhood learning minister in October 2023.
Altomare’s legacy will be the universal school food program, which provides meals to students across the province. To acknowledge Altomare’s contributions, the Manitoba government will be introducing legislation to enshrine the school food program into law so that no future government can eliminate it, according to the province. Premier Wab Kinew noted this will be called ‘Nello’s Law’.
“He will be remembered as the education and childhood learning minister that changed the lives of Manitoba students forever – with a universal school food program,” said Kinew.

Goertzen noted this is the second time the NDP caucus has lost a sitting member in a relatively short period of time, the first being Danielle Adams who passed away in a car accident a few years ago.
“I extend my condolences to (Altomare’s) family and friends and the NDP caucus,” said Goertzen. “…the caucus has lost a couple of their valued members and that’s hard on a caucus; it’s like a family. So to the caucus members and to the families I want to extend my condolences.”