#munipoli Matters - ISSUE 57 - Breaking down the Manitoba election results
Who are the newly or reelected MLAs with municipal government and political backgrounds?
Welcome to another edition of #munipoli Matters, breaking down the latest in municipal government and politics across Canada.
I would like to review the recent Manitoba provincial election on October 4, which saw a change in government and history being made with NDP leader Wab Kinew becoming the first First Nations person elected a provincial premier in Canada.
The Manitoba NDP won 34 of 57 legislative seats, while the governing PC party took 22 and the Manitoba Liberals won only a single seat. The PCs had been running the province since 2016, when they unseated the NDP from government after 17 years in government.
Below are some of the winners and losers that have had previous municipal or band council political experience:
Ron Kostyshyn - Former reeve of Mossey River from 2007-2009, Kostynshyn was elected as an NDP MLA for Swan River from 2011 to 2016. Kostyshyn contested the Dauphin riding this October.
Rick Shone - The former Winnipeg mayoral candidate in 2022 was unsuccessfuly as the PC candidate in Fort Garry, losing to NDP incumbent Mark Wasyliw.
Kevin Klein - The former Winnipeg city councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood was elected MLA for Kirkfield Park in a December 2022 by-election and was appointed Manitoba’s Environment Minister this past January. Unfortunately, he failed in his reelection bid to NDP candidate Logan Oxenham, the same person he faced in that by-election.
Konrad Narth - Narth is a farmer and served on the council of the Rural Municipality (RM) of Stuartburn for 12 years. He held the La Verendrye riding, located in southeastern Manitoba, for the PCs.
Trevor King - Former reeve of the RM of Woodlands from 2014 to 2018, King was elected to the Lakeside constituency, holding for the PCs.
Jeff Bereza - Before being elected MLA for Portage La Prairie, Bereza served in that city’s local government as a councillor from 2006 to 2010. He ran for mayor in 2010 and came up short.
Tim Diack - Diack was a police officer in his previous career. He previously ran for mayor in 2018 and in 2022 for a Council seat in the St. James ward. This year, he ran for St. James riding under the PC banner, losing to NDP incumbent Adrien Sala.
Robert-Falcon Ouellette - Ouellette first rose to political prominence in 2014, when he made a strong showing in the Winnipeg mayoral election that year. He parlayed that into a successful election a year later as the federal Liberal candidate in Winnipeg Centre, ousting incumbent NDP MP Pat Martin.
Ouellette lost reelection as MP in 2019, but then ran for mayor again in 2022 and lost. In the Southdale riding this time, he came in third as the Manitobal Liberal candidate, as the NDP beat the PC incumbent.
Amanda Lathlin - Prior to her election to the legislature to The Pas-Kameesak in 2015 for the NDP, Lathlin worked for the University College of the North and served as a band councillor for the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Her late father, Oscar, also represented The Pas from 1990-2008.
Cover photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons