Can’t trust trustee’s Trojan Horse politics

IT’S not entirely clear when or why Hanover trustee Shayne Barkman became one of Manitoba’s best-known anti-LGBTTQ+ crusaders.

Back in 2022, when he ran as a candidate for the Hanover school board for the first time, there was nary a hint that socially conservative culture wars were going to be a large part of his identity as an elected official.

In a Steinbach Online profile published before the 2022 municipal elections, Barkman highlighted his background as a successful farmer. He said he was entering politics to be a “listening ear” who could promote understanding.

“I would love to kind of just be a voice of reason amongst all the problems coming down the pipe,” Barkman said Somewhere between that interview and the current school board election campaign, where Barkman is running for re-election, he became less interested in being a “voice of reason,” and more possessed with imposing the will of some dangerously misinformed parents on the entire division.

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