NDP nearly wiped out in Manitoba after losing 1 northern, 1 Winnipeg seat
Ozten Shebahkeget | CBC News | Posted: April 29, 2025 8:13 AM | Last Updated: April 29
Party will 'get back up again,' Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan says after winning NDP's only Manitoba seat
Manitobans voted to send just one of three New Democrats back to the House of Commons, with the Winnipeg stronghold of Elmwood-Transcona going to the Conservatives and longtime MP Niki Ashton losing the northern riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski to the Liberals.
It's the worst defeat the New Democrats have suffered in Manitoba since 1993, when Bill Blaikie held the only seat for the party in the former Winnipeg-Transcona riding. Excluding that year, Manitoba has always had more than one New Democrat MP since the party came into existence in 1961, parliamentary records say.
Leah Gazan held on to her Winnipeg Centre seat after earning nearly 40 per cent of the vote. The Liberals' Rahul Walia had around 35 per cent, trailing Gazan by about 1,400 votes.
It was a devastating night for the NDP across the country, with their seven seats falling short of the 12 needed for official party status.
Jagmeet Singh announced that he'll step aside as NDP leader after party support collapsed and he conceded his own B.C. riding. The party lost 17 of the 24 seats it had at dissolution, earning just 6.3 per cent of the vote.
Gazan says the party's not over.
"Going forward, however, we need to work to rebuild the NDP," she said. "This is not the only time we've been down, and you know, we'll get back up again and fight for people across Canada."
She believes U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to Canada's sovereignty drove voters to the polls, but not to her party.
"I think a lot of people voted out of fear, and I understand that."
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will form a minority government, CBC News projected on Tuesday afternoon. The party is projected to win 169 seats — just short of the 172 needed to form a majority.
Over a dozen seats were still too close to call when Elections Canada paused counting overnight. The count resumed later in the morning.
At least one riding, Terrebonne in Quebec, is so close it will trigger an automatic recount.
Ashton 1st won in 2008
In northern Manitoba, the NDP lost the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski riding to the Liberals.
Ashton, who first won the riding in 2008, got around 29 per cent of the vote, trailing the Liberals' Rebecca Chartrand, who had 45 per cent of the vote.
Chartrand previously ran in the riding in the 2015 election, but lost to Ashton in a close race.
Ashton has won five consecutive elections in the riding since 2008.
WATCH | Leila Dance loses Elmwood-Transcona to Conservatives:
The party also lost the other seat it had held in Winnipeg going into the election.
Leila Dance, who won the Elmwood-Transcona seat in a September 2024 byelection, was defeated in a rematch with the Conservatives' Colin Reynolds.
"I know this isn't the result we were hoping for across Canada, but we're going to come back bigger and stronger next time, because Canadians need New Democrats at the table," Dance told supporters in her concession speech.
She said she suspected strategic voting played a role in her loss to Reynolds.
"It has changed this, and probably — realistically — did cost me this election," Dance said. "But again, people need to vote with their hearts and what they believe in."
The NDP will fight to get the riding back in the next election, she said, highlighting the party's work on national pharmacare and dental insurance programs.
"What the NDP are bringing to the table is so important, no matter who's in government."