Liberal candidate taking a second swing in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski after defeat 10 years ago By: Malak Abas Posted: 4:55 PM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2025

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This article was published 26/03/2025 (578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Indigenous businesswoman and educator who came up short a decade ago in her bid to become a Liberal MP is taking a second run at the job in Manitoba’s largest electoral district.

Rebecca Chartrand, who finished second in the 2015 federal election with 42 per cent of the vote in Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, said Wednesday that economic development in the riding — which covers the entirety of Manitoba’s central and northern regions — is a priority for her.

“This riding should not be on the sidelines,” said the president and CEO of Indigenous Strategy, a consulting company. “We should be at the centre of Canada’s trade-resilience strategy.

She said the region is “uniquely positioned” to reduce dependence on U.S. markets as the province and the country navigate the current trade war.

“We can’t ignore the North anymore… we have the Port of Churchill, we have the rail line, we have minerals, we have interest from our Indigenous communities to build a utility line that runs from British Columbia all the way to the Port of Churchill. There’s so much opportunity here.”

Chartrand lost the 2015 vote to Niki Ashton, who has held the seat for the NDP over five elections, beginning in 2008. Ashton finished with 45 per cent of the vote, just 912 ballots ahead of her Liberal opponent.

“We know that she’s been the incumbent for a number of years for a party that has never been in government,” said the Liberal, who is Anishinaabe, Métis, Dakota and Inninew.

“I thank her for the work that she’s done, but democracy requires change, and so it’s time to see somebody new in this seat, and as an Indigenous person, I think it’s time to see an Indigenous person in this seat.”

The riding’s population is more than 75 per cent Indigenous, she said.

“We have to have a seat at the table, and if not this riding, then where?” she said.

Chartrand is from Treaty 4 territory and currently lives in Winnipeg, where she has also worked in education, most recently by leading development of Seven Oaks School Division’s anti-racism policy in 2021.

She said she was asked by the Liberal party to run again in previous elections, but declined, focusing on work and her family.

While the trade war is front of mind for many this election, Ashton said she’d be focusing her campaign on the “ongoing crisis in northern and Indigenous communities.”

”If I get re-elected I’m going to fight hard for housing, health, education and infrastructure. These are the issues that really matter to northern and Indigenous people on the ground,” she said in an email.

Ashton is not Indigenous but was raised in northern Manitoba. She suggested that other candidates are often “parachuted in,” but did not directly refer to Chartrand.

The Free Press has reached out to the Conservative party. The party website lists a Lachlan DeNardi as the candidate in the riding but provides no further information.

While the NDP has strong historical connections to First Nations communities in northern Manitoba, Chartrand is a strong candidate with a chance to break through, said University of Manitoba political studies adjunct professor Christopher Adams.

“It’ll be a hard slog, but not impossible, for the Liberals to take that seat,” he said.

A Leger poll shows the federal NDP trailing far behind the rest of the country in voting intention, with just six per cent of those surveyed saying they’d vote NDP today.

Churchill—Keewatinook Aski last voted Liberal in 2006, when Cree actress Tina Keeper defeated Ashton. She ran again in 2008 and lost to Ashton.

“It could be that if the NDP is dropping in support everywhere, maybe, for the Liberals, this is the election for them to take it back,” Adams said.

The election is April 28.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca