‘He had a lot of horsepower’: Former Dauphin-area MP Robert Sopuck dead at 73

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Peggy

Robert Sopuck, a former Manitoba member of Parliament and outdoor enthusiast who championed the rural way of life, died Wednesday at the age of 73.

Sopuck was first elected in a byelection in 2010 and represented the western Manitoba ridings of Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette, and later Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa, until he retired from politics in 2019.

In 2015, Sopuck told CBC he wanted to be an MP because he felt “very strongly that it’s important to protect and defend the rural life, rural culture and the rural economy.”

He specialized in conservation issues, such as protecting fisheries and wildlife.

Sopuck led the federal Conservatives on various conservation matters, while serving as chair of the party’s hunting and angling caucus.

“He dedicated his life to conservation, living his life outdoors and the public at large,” his step-daughter Marsha Street said Thursday.

As an MP, Sopuck also served as a member of the standing committees for environment and sustainable development and for fisheries and oceans.

Influential on grassroots, national levels: Wildlife Federation

Carly Deacon, managing director with Manitoba Wildlife Federation, said she worked with Sopuck on and off for around 25 years.

“He was so connected on a grassroots level, but he was also so influential on a national level in terms of promoting and advocating for hunting and angling and trapping,” she said.

“He was pretty inspirational in our little outdoor community.”

A man in a burgundy sweater is seated while holding a tree branch and looking out at a body of water. — Robert Sopuck was an avid outdoorsman. (Thomas Fricke/Robertsopuck.ca)

Deacon said Sopuck volunteered for numerous causes and acted as her sounding board as she lobbied political players.

She also got to see him “in his element” when he was teaching fly-fishing or hunting.

“I don’t know where he found the time. That guy, he was gardening, he was farming, he was hunting, he was fishing. He was a politician. He was a family man. He was pretty incredible — he had a lot of horsepower.”

During his nine years in federal politics, Sopuck also served as chair of the Canada-Ukraine parliamentary friendship group, a non-partisan group that advocates for positive relations between the two countries. The Dauphin area, which Sopuck represented, has strong connections to Ukrainian culture.

Sopuck previously worked as a fisheries biologist and a newspaper columnist, writing about hunting, fishing and conservation.