NDP retains Transcona seat

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This article was published 18/03/2025 (186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Voters in Transcona have chosen another New Democratic educator to fill the legislature seat of the late Nello Altomare.

Shannon Corbett, 53, vice-principal of Transcona Collegiate Institute, will represent the constituency held by Altomare, the education minister and retired school principal, until he died Jan. 14.

“You had a candidate who brought that Transcona blue-collar work ethic,” Premier Wab Kinew said at her victory party at Boston Pizza on Regent Avenue.

Her background helped at the doorstep when they were campaigning, he said.

“So many people we talked to are like, ‘Oh, you taught my nephew, you taught my grandkids, you taught my neighbour.’

“It’s just amazing to have another educator on the team who’s able to bring that knowledge of people just by hearing their last name, where they fit into the Transcona family,” the premier said.

Corbett garnered 3,616 votes to beat Progressive Conservative candidate Shawn Nason, 56, a former Winnipeg city councillor, who had 1,569 votes.

“I’m so excited to embark on this new phase of my life, to be a part of this NDP family,” Corbett told an exuberant crowd of supporters, including most of the NDP caucus.

“I promise to advocate for the issues that matter to the people of Transcona,” said Corbett who paid tribute to her mentor, Altomare.

“I am so grateful for what he (did) for Transcona,” she said. “I’m grateful I had the time with him and his mentorship, and it just means the world to me.”

She said his widow, Barb Altomare, was the first person they contacted with the news about her winning the seat for the NDP.

“It’s been an amazing experience and we did it.”

Liberal Brad Boudreau, 30, received 217 votes. Olympic speed skating medallist Susan Auch, 59, who ran as an independent, finished last with 208 votes.

As is typical of a byelection, voter turnout was low. Only 5,631 voters of the 17,910 who were registered cast a ballot, equalling just 31.44 per cent turnout.

In total, 2,418 voters, or 12 per cent, had voted in advance, Elections Manitoba reported.

Voter turnout in the 2023 general election in Transcona was 51.4 per cent.

In the 57-seats legislature, the NDP now has 34 seats, while the PCs hold 21 and there are two independents (Liberal leader Cindy Lamoureux and former NDP caucus member Mark Waysliw).

Altomare, who was first elected in 2019, won by more than 2,000 votes against his nearest rival, Titi Tijani of the PCs.

University of Manitoba political studies Prof. Christopher Adams said in Transona, the NDP used to be a shoo-in because the constituency is a traditional labour stronghold, but that’s changing.

“The blue-collar nature of Transcona has been slowly shifting towards more of a suburban profile,” said Adams.

The average household has three family members and a median income of $88,000. While it’s home to the unionized CN Transcona Shops and factories such as NFI Group’s New Flyer, it’s also had new housing developments spring up with families looking for lower taxes and more affordable living.

Adams said that’s who Nason and the Tories were hoping to win over.

“The PCs have been chipping away and that’s because of the suburban sprawl,” he said, pointing to Tory Blair Yakimoski winning the seat in 2016 when Brian Pallister’s PCs were swept into power. In the 2011 federal election, Conservative Lawrence Toet won the Elmwood-Transcona seat.

Toet lost the seat in 2015 to the NDP’s Daniel Blaikie, but not by much.

“That was the closest election call of Canada when Daniel Blaikie took it away by fewer than 60 votes,” Adams said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca