Elmwood—Transcona, MB — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Elmwood—Transcona

An open seat is a rare thing in northeast Winnipeg, and 2008 produced one. Bill Blaikie, who had represented the area since 1979 — first as member for Winnipeg—Birds Hill, then Winnipeg—Transcona, then Elmwood—Transcona — announced in March 2007 that he would not run again. He had served as Deputy Speaker of the Commons since April 2006. The constituency covered Elmwood, East Kildonan, part of North Kildonan and, further out along the rail lines, Transcona: neighbourhoods separated from the rest of the city by the Red River and the CN yards and stitched to it by a small number of heavily used crossings.

Candidates

Jim Maloway (NDP) — Born at Sioux Lookout, Ontario, in 1952, Maloway took a Bachelor of Arts in political science at the University of Manitoba in 1975 and had run an insurance and travel business in Winnipeg since 1978. He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature for Elmwood at the March 1986 provincial election and had held the seat ever since, winning the federal NDP nomination on 7 September 2008. His opening issue was the Disraeli bridge: he pressed the city to add two lanes rather than close the crossing outright, and canvassed residents through an online survey.

Thomas Steen (Conservative) — Steen was born at Grums, Sweden, in 1960 and played for Leksands IF and Färjestads BK before the Winnipeg Jets, who drafted him in the fifth round in 1979, signed him in 1981. He spent fourteen seasons with the club, appearing in 950 regular-season games, captaining the team from 1989 to 1991 and having his number retired on his retirement in 1995. He afterwards scouted for the Minnesota Wild and held a half interest in the Manitoba Moose as its director of player development. He too wanted federal money found for the Disraeli, while conceding it was not a federal responsibility.

Wes Penner (Liberal) — A Winnipeg business owner, Penner had carried the Liberal banner in Provencher in 2006 and was contesting Elmwood—Transcona for the first time. He campaigned on crime and public safety, arguing the justice system needed restructuring from the bottom up to keep young people out of criminal careers.

Chris Hrynkow (Green Party) — A university lecturer running his first campaign, Hrynkow used the bridge debate to ask why Elmwood and Transcona had no fast, cheap public transport link to the rest of Winnipeg, and cycled the riding himself from spring through fall.

Robert Scott, a locomotive engineer, carried the Christian Heritage Party banner and campaigned on wait times and hallway medicine at Concordia Hospital.

About the Riding

The Disraeli crossing dominated local politics through the campaign. The bridges linking Elmwood to downtown were corroded and overdue for replacement, and on 24 September 2008, two weeks into the federal campaign, city council settled on a roughly $140-million pair of replacement structures that would shut the route for about sixteen months. Every candidate on the ballot was asked about it, and for a riding that depended on the crossing to reach jobs and hospitals across the river, the decision landed squarely in the middle of the election.

Transcona was built by the railway. The shops opened in 1913 for the Grand Trunk Pacific and National Transcontinental — later part of Canadian National — and from 1915 to 1918 the coach paint shop was turned over to the Transcona Shell Company, which produced 18-pounder shells for the Western Front. Elmwood had its own industrial past, a meat packing plant, a furniture works and a box factory among them, almost all of it gone by 2008 and replaced by modest housing and older commercial strips.

Incomes reflected that history: East Elmwood households averaged $48,950 at the 2006 census against $63,023 across Winnipeg as a whole. Much of the riding's civic life ran through its community centres and the union halls that came with the shops. The seat and its predecessors had returned Blaikie at every election since 1979.