Close race nothing new for Blaikie family

By: Kristin Annable Posted: 12:22 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015

Two of the closest races in the last two federal elections in Winnipeg have one thing in common – the Blaikie name.

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Two of the closest races in the last two federal elections in Winnipeg have one thing in common – the Blaikie name.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2015 (3635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two of the closest races in the last two federal elections in Winnipeg have one thing in common – the Blaikie name.

In a race that came down to the final poll, NDP candidate Daniel Blaikie’s victory Monday in Elmwood-Transcona is reminiscent of 2011’s squeaker in Winnipeg North, where his sister Rebecca Blaikie lost to Liberal candidate Kevin Lamoureux by 44 votes.

“We work hard, we work to the finish and we manage to place in races that people say are tough and we can’t win,” Daniel Blaikie said Tuesday.

Jason Halstead / Winnipeg Free Press
Daniel Blaikie celebrates his victory with his father Bill at the New Cavalier Inn on Regent Avenue West last night. — Jason Halstead / Winnipeg Free Press Daniel Blaikie celebrates his victory with his father Bill at the New Cavalier Inn on Regent Avenue West last night.

“It is not really the name in of itself, we come from a family who are really committed to social and economic justice… so when our name is on the ballot, thankfully, people come out to help us out.”

Blaikie unseated Conservative candidate Lawrence Toet by only 51 votes, about eight votes shy of an automatic recount. However, that doesn’t mean Toet can’t call one himself.

Blaikie said the “ball is the Conservative camp to make that call,” but he hasn’t heard anything yet.

In Winnipeg North, the NDP requested a recount after Rebecca Blaikie’s loss, which resulted in Lamoureux’s margin of victory changing from 45 to 44.

An automatic recount occurs when the margin of victory is less than 1/1000th of the number of votes cast.

“We knew that was going to be a tight race and be a steep hill to climb,” Daniel Blaikie said about the race in Winnipeg North. “And we knew this one (would be), but we’re not afraid of a challenge and we work hard.”

And it doesn’t end there with the Blaikie family.

Over the course of the 30-year career of Bill Blaikie, Daniel’s father, as the New Democrat MP for Elmwood-Transcona, he had some squeakers of his own.

In 1993, during the Liberal surge under Jean Chrétien, Blaikie was nearly unseated by Liberal candidate Art Miki, winning by only 219 votes.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca