Winnipeg lawyer and businessman Marty Morantz secured the Progressive Conservative Party nomination for the River Heights Riding on March 25th over two rivals, Colleen McFadden and Brian Davis.

Close to 600 residents of River Heights came out to vote for the event, which lasted over three hours before the vote count was tallied.

Morantz was the only candidate who served cookies and he gave out water bottles to those in attendance to help people endure what was a fairly lenghthy process until the votes were counted. (This reporter noted that supporters of all candidates were eating the cookies).

There were quite a number of members of the Jewish community who came out to support  the nomination of Morantz, who was introduced by  lawyer Robert Gabor. Morantz won after the first ballot. "I feel humbled to have been nominated by the  600 members of the River Heights PC Association.  I plan to carry this momentum forward into the next Provincial election  to win the riding and  give the residents of River Heights a real voice in Government, " Morantz told the Winnipeg Jewish Review after the event. Prior to this nomination contest, the  Conservative Party’s riding association in River Heights  had an active membership of approximately 125 people, meaning that about 475 new memberships were sold prior to the recent contest.

Close to 600 Residents of River Heights came out to vote. Photo by Manuel Sousa.

“The vast majority of these were sold by Marty and his team,” said  Michael Kowalson, Morantz’s campaign manager.

Kowalson was “not sure when there was last a three way contested race” for a Conservative nomination  but added that “there have been many contested nomination battles in River Heights over the years, most notably when Gary Filmon faced off against Michael Liepsic when over 800 people attended that nomination meeting in 1979.”

Morantz has been in touch with both of the two defeated candidates and plans to meet with them in the near future.

Kowalson added, “ All three candidates remain committed to electing a PC MLA in River Heights. The meeting moved a motion of unanimity following the announcement of Marty’s victory. Marty and his team were particularly gratified to see wide spread support from all parts of the community.”

Morantz also told the WJR that "anyone interested in working on his campaign is welcome to participate."