NDP newcomer Dela Cruz takes down Tory veteran in Radisson

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This article was published 03/10/2023 (757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Political newcomer Jelynn Dela Cruz — described by her party as “the youngest NDP MLA since Ed Schreyer” — took down a Tory cabinet minister to bring Radisson back into the NDP fold.

The 23-year-old Gen Z candidate claimed 4,819 votes in the northeastern Winnipeg electoral division, defeating consumer protection and government services minister James Teitsma (3,893).

Schreyer was 22 when he was first elected in 1958. He later served as Manitoba premier (1969-77) and governor general of Canada (1979-84).

Dela Cruz said she was “over the moon” Tuesday night, adding her goal is to make sure the people she spoke to while campaigning are heard.

“A lot of folks have shared with me their qualms with the health-care system, their qualms with pay, their qualms with the rising cost of living,” Dela Cruz said. “(The NDP) have such potential to rebuild that trust.”

Dela Cruz works at L’Arche Winnipeg, a non-profit group serving people with disabilities. Months before the last provincial election, in 2019, she was seeking election as the University of Manitoba Students’ Union vice-president of student life. A year later, she became UMSU president.

On Tuesday night, despite the sombre atmosphere at PC party headquarters at the Canad Inns hotel on Pembina Highway, Teitsma was in good spirits and “content” with the results.

“I think the people of Manitoba spoke and the people of Radisson spoke with their votes today, and I accept that result,” he said.

Before Teitsma was elected in 2016, and re-elected in 2019, only one PC MLA had represented Radisson (1977-81). The riding was briefly Liberal in 1988-90. All other elections since 1961 have been won by the NDP.

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Teitsma faced controversies before and during his time in Manitoba politics.

Prior to running in 2016, he served as a board member for the Association for Reformed Political Action, a nationwide group that has protested against abortion and same-sex marriage.

Teitsma faced backlash in 2021, after his family travelled interprovincially on holiday — despite the Pallister government urging residents to stay home through COVID-19 public health restrictions.

The Liberal candidate for Radisson, retired locomotive engineer Jean Luc Bouché, finished third Tuesday with 509 votes.

— Malak Abas

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.