Emerson

This southern Manitoba riding has been drastically changed for the 2011 election as population growth in southeastern Manitoba forced a major redrawing of the electoral map in this region.

While it used to run across the entire southeastern border of Manitoba and North Dakota all the way to Ontario, it lost most of its eastern section to La Verendrye. It now includes Emerson, Altona, Gretna, St. Pierre Jolys and Dominion City.

The riding has a relatively large immigrant population for rural Manitoba (only Steinbach and Morden-Winkler have a higher proportion of immigrants), with almost one in seven residents born outside of Canada.

It has drawn large portions of its immigrants from Germany as well as Mennonite communities outside Canada.

Only one per cent of the population are visible minorities and one in 10 people are aboriginal, almost equally divided between Métis and First Nations.

Almost three in 10 report not speaking English at home. Agriculture and manufacturing are the biggest economic drivers.

 

Stats

Population: 20,370

Median age: 32.4

Immigrants: 14 per cent

Aboriginal population: 10.2 per cent

Living in poverty: 9.1 per cent

Median income: $21,499

 

Politics

The last time the NDP won this riding, Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, Richard Nixon was still in the White House and Canada was just starting to prepare for the Olympics. In Montreal.

Read: This is Tory country.

PC Cliff Graydon, who won this riding for the first time in 2007 after the retirement of veteran PC MLA Jack Penner, is seeking it again.

It had one of the worst voter turnouts in the province at just 49.51 per cent.

 

2007 results

Cliff Graydon, PC 3,696

Chris Murash, NDP 1,296

Monica Guetre, LIB 1,117

Turnout: 49.51 per cent