Provencher Conservative Association President Amos Wiebe

The annual Provencher Conservative Association Fundraising Dinner had a much different makeup this year than in years past.

The dinner was held on November 13th at Mennonite Heritage Village, and just under 200 people attended.  While the attendance number was on par for previous years, the composition of the 200 people was vastly different.  The dinner had typically seen a turnout with an even split of people from Provencher and Winnipeg, but this year the Provencher number grew to around 90%.

"It's great for us, because it means the people from Provencher, our constituents are interested," says Association President Amos Wiebe.  "They're engaged with our party and they're excited about our MP (Ted Falk) and the work he's doing in Ottawa.  It's a great thing for us."

While the association can accept donations from anywhere, Wiebe explains they really want to engage the people of Provencher and continue to develop relationships with long time supporters and develop new relationships with new supporters.

"It's absolutely vital, our supporters are also our volunteers and our funders," Wiebe notes.  "If we can't engage with the people who come tonight, we can't run election campaigns.  Events like this are absolutely vital, so it's very important that we run these things and take care in running them."

He adds raising money for election campaigns isn't easy, and the dinner will help toward that.

"We don't really set a target goal with this particular dinner," says Wiebe.  "With this event we look at it as both a fundraiser and an outreach event to draw people in and engage with the association and the Conservative party locally."

A pair of volunteer awards were also handed out at the dinner, as Art Rempel and Marlene Hiebert were recognized for their years of dedication to the Provencher Conservative Association.