NDP takes Winnipeg, mourns rural losses

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Published: October 14, 2008

NDP MP Pat Martin’s big challenge wasn’t beating his political opponents. They stood little chance in this NDP stronghold of Winnipeg Centre.

The challenge he set for himself was to get 50 percent of the total votes cast, a feat he was teetering on the edge of achieving late Tuesday night.

Not only did Martin win for the NDP in Winnipeg, garnering 48.8 percent of the vote according to early results, but Judy Wasylycia-Leis and newcomer Jim Maloway also kept NDP seats in the party’s grasp. Wasylycia-Leis won Winnipeg North with 62.6 percent of the vote while Maloway won Elmwood Transcona with 46 percent of the vote

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And Martin was thrilled when he saw that Niki Ashton had regained the northern riding of Churchill, which the NDP lost to the Liberals last election.

But strength in Winnipeg did not extend to farm country anywhere west, and Martin admitted frustration that the NDP cannot seem to find the secret to regaining the vast swaths of rural electoral territory it once held.

“That rural populist vote has slipped away from us in Western Canada,” Martin noted.

“Why can’t we get that vote? That’s the $64,000 question, because God knows we’re speaking their language, we’re relevant to their interests.”

During the campaign Martin, who has no farmland in his riding, spoke about the Canadian Wheat Board and other farm issues because he believed they were important to farmers in Manitoba and across the Prairies, but on election day his and his party’s efforts resulted in zero farm riding MPs being elected.

“It’s an embarrassment to me that we don’t have any seats in the province of Saskatchewan,” said Martin. “Shocking.”

But in his own riding, Martin and his party’s message brought results, providing him and Wasylycia-Leis with huge victories.

“People recognize that their interests are better served with a strong voice in opposition rather than a weak and mushy voice that’s part of the ruling party,” said Martin.

If only, Martin said, the NDP could find the same way to appeal to the farmers who once so strongly supported their party, but now vote Conservative.

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Ed White

Ed White

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