He helped to convert St. John's United Church into a co-op apartment complex, and was a founding member of Inner City Voice newspaper.
[4] Martindale defeated incumbent MLA Conrad Santos to win the New Democratic Party nomination for the northwest Winnipeg division of Burrows in the 1988 provincial election.
The seat had previously been regarded as safe for the NDP, but local divisions and a provincial swing away from the party contributed to Martindale's defeat.
The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government under Gary Filmon, and Martindale served in the official opposition as his party's critic for family services and housing.
[6] He opposed the Filmon government's cuts to child welfare and education support, and called for an inquiry into allegations of emotional abuse and unethical treatment at the Osborne House battered women's shelter.
He continued to serve as family services critic, and opposed another round of child welfare cuts introduced by the Filmon government later in the year.
[14] In 2004, Martindale brought forward a parliamentary motion urging the provincial government to declare the last Saturday of November as Day of the Ukrainian Famine/Genocide, commemorating the victims of the Holodomor of 1932-33.