The NDP’s Niki Ashton won re-election as Churchill-Keewatinook Aski’s Member of Parliament in the Oct. 21 federal election, capturing more than 50 per cent of the votes as of just before midnight Monday, with 115 of 155 polls having been counted in unofficial election night results.
“I am truly honoured by the support,” Ashton said in her victory speech at her campaign headquarters on Selkirk Drive in Thompson. “I will say the NDP in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski crushed it. We crushed it in an election where people said we’ve got real issues and we want to make it clear who is on our side. Tonight Churchill-Keewatinook Aski sent a strong message that the people of our region will not stand for those broken promises [of the Liberal government] and our region will stand for respect for First Nations, for true reconciliation and reconcili-action, more importantly, in communities across our north.”
Ashton had more than 4,000 votes more than second-place candidate Cyara Bird of the Conservative party with 74 per cent of polls having been counted.
“I’d like to congratulate Niki on her re-election,” said Bird. “I am happy with the work that I put in. I’m pleased with the result that I had. i got to meet so many amazing people on this journey. Everywhere I went it felt like home and that was something I really enjoyed about this campaign. I just want to say thank you to everyone for voting for me and voting in general. I’m just so thankful that I got to do this. I’m building for next time. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next time.”
Liberal candidate Judy Klassen was third, with about 1,000 fewer votes than Bird as of midnight, while Green Party candidate Ralph McLean was fourth with about 900 votes and People’s Party of Canada candidate Kenneth Klyne fifth with about 250 votes.
This will be Ashton’s fourth term in the House of Commons, having first been elected in 2008 as the MP for Churchill and re-elected in 2011 before becoming the MP of the renamed riding in 2015.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were declared the next government of Canada before polls even closed in parts of Western Canada, capturing 155 seats as of midnight with about 33 per cent of the popular vote. The Conservatives under leader Andrew Scheer were second with 122 seats despite having 34.5 per cent of the popular vote. The NDP won 25 seats with about 16 per cent of the popular vote, fourth-most behind the Bloc Quebecois, which won 32 seats. The Green party won three seats with about six per cent of the popular vote and one independent MP was also elected.
