Liberal candidate Eyolfson on his return to Winnipeg West

St. James-Assiniboia

Charleswood

Headingley

Although the Winnipeg West — formerly known as Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley —riding has a new name, newly elected MP Doug Eyolfson is a familiar face for those who have lived in the area for the last decade.

At press time, the Liberal candidate had won the riding with 54.4 per cent of the vote, defeating Conservative candidate Marty Morantz, who had 40.7 per cent. Eyolfson, a physician, was originally elected in 2015 and lost to Morantz back in 2019.

“I’m feeling great,” he said during a phone call on May 1. “I had promised myself in 2019, when I lost that election, that I was going to go back one day, so I never really stopped striving towards that. So today it feels like all that was time well spent.”

He said that, in the end, he and his campaign office weren’t taken by surprise by the final results, which was in part thanks to the experience he’s had doing this before.

“We were tracking our results, and the results I was actually getting in our responses was very similar to 2015 when I was successful. So we had a general idea that things were going to go well, but there’s always the butterflies when you don’t actually know,” he said.

Currently, Eyolfson is waiting on further direction — “getting set up in Ottawa, as well as getting set up here” — as well as continuing to spend time in the emergency room.

He said he’s looking forward to continuing to connect with people in any way he can.

“My main mission, my first responsibility, as it was last time, is to represent my constituents,” he said. “Which means, I have an office here, and if people have issues that I can help with they’re able to call me. And so every few weeks, I’m in town for the week, and I spend that time meeting with constituents, attending constituency events and helping constituents with different issues that they might need help with on government matters. So that’s job one for me, and the main thing is when constituents have concerns, it’s my job to listen and to help where I can.”