Winnipeg South Centre, MB — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Winnipeg South Centre

The 2003 redistribution pushed this riding entirely south of the Assiniboine River for the first time, leaving it bounded by the Assiniboine to the north, the Red River to the east and Bishop Grandin Boulevard to the south. Inside are the mansion frontage of Wellington Crescent, the tree-lined grid of River Heights and Crescentwood, the apartment blocks and storefronts of Osborne Village, the Corydon Avenue restaurant strip and, further south, Fort Garry and Grant Park. The Liberals had carried the seat at every election since it returned to the map in 1987, first under Lloyd Axworthy and then under Anita Neville. A Progressive Conservative last won the old Winnipeg South Centre in 1974, two years before the riding was abolished.

Candidates

Anita Neville (Liberal) — Neville took a degree in political science at the University of Manitoba and worked as a program development consultant with the Winnipeg Core Area Initiative, the tripartite urban renewal programme of the 1980s, later directing its employment and training arm and the provincial WORKFORCE 2000 skills programme. She was elected to the Winnipeg School Division board in 1986 and sat on it until 2000, chairing it twice. She took the federal seat in 2000 when Axworthy retired, chaired the Commons status of women committee, and was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of Canadian heritage and the minister responsible for the status of women in 2005. She was seeking a fourth term.

Trevor Kennerd (Conservative) — Kennerd kicked for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1980 to 1991 and retired as the club's all-time leading scorer. He won three Grey Cups with the team and kicked the winning field goal in the 1988 final. A three-time CFL all-star, he entered the Blue Bombers' hall of fame in 1997 and was named one of the club's twenty all-time greats in 2005. He moved into marketing and communications afterwards and was running his own business when he took the Conservative nomination, giving the party its best-known local name in years.

Rachel Heinrichs (NDP) — A student living in the riding, Heinrichs was the New Democrat candidate.

Vere Scott (Green Party) — Scott, retired and resident in Winnipeg, stood for the Green Party.

About the Riding

The local economy is professional and institutional rather than industrial. Lawyers, accountants, physicians, academics and senior public servants live here in numbers, and most of the employment is in health care, education, financial services and government. Grant Park Shopping Centre anchors retail in the south of the riding; Corydon Avenue and Osborne Street supply the restaurant and small-business districts. Housing ranges from the century-old estates along Wellington Crescent to the rental stock of Riverview and Lord Roberts, which makes the seat far less uniform than its reputation suggests.

That mix is why the riding was competitive rather than safe. Affluent voters in River Heights and Crescentwood were a natural Conservative target, while younger renters around Osborne Village were increasingly available to the New Democrats and the Greens. Any Liberal here had to hold both ends at once.

Three national arguments landed with particular force in 2008. The government's $45-million cut to arts and culture programmes, announced in August, irritated a constituency with an unusual concentration of cultural workers and arts patrons, and became a standing feature of the local campaign. The Green Shift was defended by Neville and attacked by Kennerd throughout. And the market collapse of late September pushed economic management to the front, a subject the Conservatives worked hard as they pressed their case on steadiness. Kennerd's local celebrity gave them their most credible shot at the seat in a generation.