Winnipeg Centre

Winnipeg Centre is an entirely urban riding occupying the core of Manitoba's capital, encompassing some of the city's most historically significant—and socioeconomically challenged—neighbourhoods. The constituency includes the North End, West End, Spence, Daniel McIntyre, West Broadway, the Exchange District, Wolseley, and portions of downtown Winnipeg south of Portage Avenue. It is a compact riding that contains both The Forks—a 6,000-year-old Indigenous meeting place now home to a major public market and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights—and the Exchange District, a National Historic Site featuring over 150 heritage buildings and Winnipeg's theatre district.

Candidates

Leah Gazan (NDP) — Born in 1972 in Thompson, Manitoba, Gazan is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota Nation in Saskatchewan. Her family history spans multiple continents: her maternal grandmother is Lakota and her maternal grandfather is Chinese, while her father, born in The Hague, spent World War II in hiding and her paternal grandmother survived a concentration camp. An educator and longtime community organizer, she served as president of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg from 2011 to 2015, working on poverty reduction, housing insecurity, and violence against women. She was first elected to the House of Commons in 2019, defeating incumbent Liberal Robert-Falcon Ouellette.

Paul Ong (Liberal) — Ong is a vice-principal at Ecole Garden Grove School who previously taught in Red Sucker Lake First Nation. A classical singer and youth advocate, he served as a school trustee with the Seven Oaks School Division in 2018 and has raised over $70,000 for charities including Cancer Care Manitoba Foundation, Siloam Mission, and the Military Family Resource Centre.

Sabrina Brenot (Conservative) — Brenot carried the Conservative Party banner in Winnipeg Centre for the 2021 election.

Bhavni Bhakoo (PPC) — Bhakoo ran as the People's Party of Canada candidate in the riding in 2021.

About the Riding

Winnipeg Centre presents some of the starkest socioeconomic contrasts in the country. The West End—home to large Filipino, Indigenous, and newcomer populations—has a median household income that varies dramatically from block to block, with West Broadway recording a median of roughly $25,877 compared to nearby Armstrong's Point at $89,887. The North End, where approximately 45% of residents identify as Indigenous, has long grappled with concentrated poverty, housing instability, and food insecurity. Point Douglas South reports an average household income of about $30,523, less than half the Winnipeg average.

Culturally, the riding punches well above its weight. The Exchange District houses the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Centennial Concert Hall—home to the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Manitoba Opera—and the Manitoba Museum and Planetarium. Osborne Village, one of Winnipeg's densest neighbourhoods at roughly 12,745 people across 93 hectares, is a hub of independent retail, restaurants, and live-music venues.

The riding's political character has shifted across the decades, moving from the historic labour radicalism of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike—much of which unfolded in what is now Winnipeg Centre—through decades of NDP strength, a brief Liberal interlude under Robert-Falcon Ouellette from 2015 to 2019, and back to the NDP with Gazan's election. Issues of Indigenous reconciliation, affordable housing, mental health, and addictions services dominate local political conversation.