Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman

Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman is a vast rural and semi-rural riding stretching across the Interlake region of Manitoba, bounded by Lake Winnipeg to the east and Lake Manitoba to the west. The constituency takes in the city of Selkirk—a historic Red River settlement community roughly 30 kilometres north of Winnipeg—along with the towns of Stonewall, Gimli, Beausejour, Arborg, Lac du Bonnet, Teulon, and Winnipeg Beach, and the villages of Dunnottar and Riverton. It also encompasses the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and several other First Nations communities. With a 2021 census population near 98,620, the riding covers an enormous geographic footprint of prairie farmland, boreal forest, lakefront cottage country, and marsh habitat.

Candidates

James Bezan (Conservative) — Born in 1965 in Russell, Manitoba, Bezan trained in livestock technology at Olds College in Alberta before spending the 1980s and 1990s working in the cattle industry and eventually founding his own company. He served as CEO of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association and continues to operate a family farm near Teulon. First elected in 2004, he has chaired House of Commons committees on agriculture, environment, and national defence, and served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Defence from 2013 to 2015. He was among thirteen Canadians banned from travelling to Russia under retaliatory sanctions imposed in 2014.

Margaret Smith (NDP) — Smith is a retired teacher and active member of Immanuel United Church who ran as the NDP candidate in the riding for the 2021 election.

Detlev Regelsky (Liberal) — Regelsky carried the Liberal banner in Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman in the 2021 contest.

Ian Kathwaroon (PPC) — Kathwaroon ran for the People's Party of Canada in the riding in the 2021 election.

About the Riding

The riding is distinguished by its remarkable ethnic diversity for a rural constituency. It is home to the largest Icelandic-heritage population outside of Iceland—concentrated in and around Gimli, where the annual Islendingadagurinn (Icelandic Festival of Manitoba) has been held since 1890—as well as significant Ukrainian, German, Polish, and Indigenous communities. French-speaking residents cluster around St. Laurent on the shores of Lake Manitoba.

Agriculture dominates the local economy, with grain and mixed farming operations spread across the southern and central portions of the riding. Commercial fishing on Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba remains an important livelihood for many families, particularly in Indigenous communities. The Gerdau steel mill in Selkirk is a major industrial employer, and tourism—driven by cottage country, Grand Beach Provincial Park, and Hecla-Grindstone Provincial Park—provides a seasonal economic boost.

The riding's wildlife is among the most diverse in the province, including bear, moose, white-tailed deer, wolves, pelicans, and the famous Narcisse snake dens, which host the world's largest concentration of red-sided garter snakes each spring. Environmental issues, including Lake Winnipeg water quality, flooding along the Red River, and wetland conservation, feature prominently in local political discourse alongside agricultural trade policy and rural infrastructure investment.