Voters head to polls Tuesday in Winnipeg’s Transcona provincial byelection

Voters are going to the polls Tuesday in the Transcona area of Winnipeg.

A provincial byelection is being held to fill the seat formerly held by Nello Altomare, the Manitoba education minister who died in January.

The seat has been a longtime NDP stronghold, and has only voted for another party, the Progressive Conservatives, once since 1988 — in 2016.

Running this time for the NDP is Shannon Corbett, a vice-principal at Bernie Wolfe School and Transcona Collegiate. Corbett is seen as the favourite in what’s believed to be a tight race; she’s viewed as a strong replacement for Altomare, who was also a teacher prior to being elected in 2023.

“The previous MLA was quite popular,” said Malcolm Bird, an associate professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg. “This is sort of an NDP stronghold, and this government is doing reasonably well in general in terms of public opinion. And I’m assuming the party has an effective ground game to make sure their voters get out and vote.”

The Progressive Conservative candidate is former city councillor Shawn Nason, who served from 2018-2022. But with uncertainty abounding regarding the party’s future leadership and direction, political analyst Bird questions whether the PCs are capable of pulling off the upset.

“The Conservatives don’t have a permanent leader, don’t have a lot of unity of direction at this time, and probably don’t have that much of an infrastructure to support this candidate,” Bird said.

Brad Boudreau is running for the Liberals, and former Olympic speedskater Susan Auch is running as an independent.

The NDP has a majority in the legislature with 33 of the 57 seats, while the Tories have 21, the Liberals have one and there is one Independent.