Singh makes another stop in Winnipeg riding that’s been NDP stronghold ahead of byelection

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Peggy

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh made another stop in Winnipeg Saturday ahead of a Monday byelection in a riding that has been a stronghold for his party.

Six candidates are set to run in the byelection for Elmwood-Transcona, a seat left vacant when the NDP’s Daniel Blaikie resigned earlier this year to take a job working for Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.

“I think the choice is clear in this byelection,” Singh told supporters at Elmwood Park Saturday. “The choice between the cuts of Conservatives, or the New Democrats, who want to lower your bills.”

The NDP has represented Elmwood-Transcona and its predecessor riding, Winnipeg-Transcona, during all but four years of the electoral district’s 36-year existence. Conservative Lawrence Toet held the eastern Winnipeg seat from 2011 to 2015.

The Conservatives are hoping their candidate in Monday’s byelection, Colin Reynolds, can build on the party’s momentum following a surprise June byelection victory in the Toronto-St. Paul’s riding. That riding had belonged to the Liberals for more than 30 years.

Reynolds’s campaign has targeted the NDP by drawing attention to the confidence-and-supply deal between the New Democrats and the governing Liberal Party, which the NDP said it was ending earlier this month.

Leila Dance, the NDP candidate, is hoping to hold the seat for her party.

“This is my community, and I am super excited to have the opportunity to represent that community,” she said Saturday.

The other candidates running in the byelection are Sarah Couture (People’s Party of Canada), Nicolas Geddert (Green Party), Ian MacIntyre (Liberals) and Zbig Strycharz (Canadian Future Party).

Elections Canada said earlier this week just over 10,000 people — about 14 per cent of eligible voters in Elmwood-Transcona — cast ballots in advance voting. There are 71,847 eligible voters in the riding, according to the federal agency.

Another federal byelection is also taking place Monday in Quebec’s LaSalle–Émard–Verdun riding.