Lamoureux holds on to Winnipeg North

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This article was published 19/10/2015 (3901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kevin Lamoureux called it a red wave sweeping across the country and said he was proud that Winnipeg North helped carry it in Manitoba.

Incumbent Liberal Lamoureux won in the riding of Winnipeg North.

Lamoureux, who has held the Winnipeg North seat since a 2010 byelection, defeated NDP candidate Levy Abad, the Green Party’s John Redekopp and Conservative candidate Harpreet Turka.

“I’m very, very happy to be part of something that’s very real and alive as we’ve witnessed that red wave start in Atlantic Canada and it looks as if it’s going to go all the way to Vancouver,” Lamoureux said. “I’m very grateful that I was returned here in Winnipeg North and I thank each and every one of my constituents for the type of support that they have provided me over the years.

“I’m just overwhelmed and humbled by the type of support they demonstrated this evening with the votes that we received.”

In 2011, Lamoureux narrowly won his riding a 44-vote margin over NDP candidate Rebecca Blaikie.

On Monday night, he earned 23,407 votes, 18,218 over second-place Turka, which was 40 percent of voters in the Winnipeg North riding.

Lamoureux arrived at his election night headquarters at about 9:15 p.m. Monday along with his family – wife Cathy, daughter Cindy and son Raymond – to a throng of enthusiastic supporters at the Punjab Banquet Hall on Mandalay Drive.

Lamoureux worked the room quickly, taking a multitude of photos, with hugs and handshakes all around. A short time later he took the stage as the numbers still rolled in but it was abundantly clear that victory was his in Winnipeg North and that the Liberal government would lead Canada.

“We have a brand new shiny prime minister in Justin Trudeau,” Lamoureux said. “I think Canadians are going to be very happy about him. He’s an individual that’s incredible, he’s inspirational.”

Lamoureux joked that Trudeau is “more popular than I am in the North End.”

“It’s the first time in 10 elections that I found that having a leader has been of great value to me in terms of bringing votes,” Lamoureux said.

“I’m expecting that all 100 and hopefully more than 70 (MPs) will be eager as I am to get to work and make a difference here in Canada.”

The issues Lamoureux has spoken of during his campaign that he will champion as the Liberal MP in the North End include foster care, senior poverty, immigration, employment, crime reduction and health care and supporting a public inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Lamoureux, a veteran politician having served for 25 years as both MLA (1988-1999; 2003-2010) and as an MP, he will be in government for the first time in his career. He has held the Winnipeg North seat since the 2010 byelection after NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis resigned to run unsuccessfully for mayor of Winnipeg.

“Many many years in opposition, (the) reason why I left provincial politics was in hopes to be able to be a part of a government,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m so grateful that we’re going to be in government. I hope to make a more significant contribution to making Winnipeg a better place to live and my country the best place in the world to be,” he said.

“I’m very grateful that I was returned here in Winnipeg North and I thank each and every one of my constituents for the type of support that they have provided me over the years,” he said. “I’m just overwhelmed and humbled by the type of support they demonstrated this evening with the votes that we received.”

Lamoureux is known to be popular in his diverse riding which is the Winnipeg riding with the city’s largest Filipino population making up 28 per cent of the riding’s population. It is also the riding in Winnipeg with largest indigenous population making up 18 per cent of the population.

Parmjeet Singh Gill, a volunteer with Lamoureux since 1991, said the Liberals grew stronger as the campaign went on.

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“The Conservatives put this campaign so long because they have a big bunch of money and they underestimated the Liberal party, Justin Trudeau and candidates like Kevin Lamoureux,” Gill said.

“Day by day, Justin Trudeau just started to shine more and more. He engaged people from the heart. People loved that. He reached out to the middle class people and the grassroots.”

Gill said he believed Lamoureux and the Liberals attracted the youth vote in Winnipeg North.

Lamoureux has also been known for his accessibility. On his website, he advertises that he is available every Saturday at the McDonald’s Restaurant on Keewatin Street from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca