The Keystone Party of Manitoba was the new kid on the block and proved itself to be a contender in yesterday's election race with over 3600 votes in total from their 5 ridings, 1489 votes in the Turtle Mountain Riding alone.

Keystone Party Candidate for Turtle Mountain, and Party Leader, Kevin Friesen, says he was pleased with the support, given the fact that they are a new party in the provincial government arena.

"The campaign that we ran, the amount of people that we met throughout Turtle Mountain, I wouldn't have been disappointed if we would have only got 500-600 votes because I would say there are literally 500-600 people committed to what we're going to be doing in the future no matter what happens," shares Friesen. "So, it was exciting to see how many votes we got. Some people had hopes that we were going to win this constituency, but anybody who has lived here for more than 10 years realizes what we're up against, and that is people who have always voted conservative."

Friesen says he's wanting to educate Manitobans more on what the Keystone Party's system of government looks like.  He notes that for a new party to surpass the Green Party was an accomplishment, especially when the KP ran in only 5 ridings when the GP ran in 13.  "Maybe this will lead towards something that really can be big in the next election."

"What I'll ask people, especially in the Turtle Mountain area, is to keep your eyes open over the next 4 years and we really need to keep our MLA accountable to what he's going to bring us in the next few years," he says. "It's up to us in Turtle Mountain to make sure that we're represented well here."

Friesen says one of the challenges they faced in their ridings were the concerns that constituents had about voting for the Keystone Party but dividing the vote, which could usher in the NDP's.  "The math was pretty clear that we weren't going to divide the vote in Turtle Mountain," he explains.

"We had the math that said we could start 3 or 4 Keystone parties and that wouldn't have actually split the vote here. But I think a lot of people, deep down, didn't want to take a seat away and even though I thought we had a pretty clear message that having a Keystone representative in Winnipeg would be so good for the area of Turtle Mountain, but maybe next time!"

Please listen to more with Kevin Friesen below!

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