A Northern Manitoba MLA told the Canadian Press that she is considering jumping to federal politics in order to seek election in the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski riding, which has been held by NDP’s Niki Ashton since 2008.
If Keewatinook MLA Judy Klassen does decide to run for the federal Liberals, it will put the Manitoba Liberal Party at risk of losing official party status, which it just regained last summer for the first time since 1995 when party leader Dougald Lamont won a byelection in Winnipeg’s St. Boniface riding to give the party four seats.
River Heights MLA Jon Gerrard and Burrows MLA Cindy Lamoureux are the Manitoba Liberals’ other MLAs.
Klassen told the Canadian Press she has been in contact with the federal party about running for them in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, which includes Klassen’s Keewatinook riding in northeastern Manitoba.
Klassen was elected in 2016, defeating former NDP MLA Eric Robinson as one of three Liberals elected in the election that brought Premier Brian Pallister’s Progressive Conservative government into power, breaking a 17-year hold on government by the provincial NDP.
Official party status gives parties access to funding, research staff and a guaranteed presence during Question Period and on committees.
Lamont told the Canadian Press that he knew about Klassen’s possible departure but expects that he will have his party’s full complement of MLAs at election time, because he believes the PC government will call it in the spring.
Ashton beat Liberal candidate Rebecca Chartrand, who doesn’t live in Northern Manitoba, by fewer than 1,000 votes in the 2015 federal election, a much closer margin than in 2011, when she beat Conservative candidate Wally Daudrich by 5,000 votes.
