ManitobaVoters in the southwestern Manitoba constituency of Spruce Woods will choose a new elected representative on Tuesday to fill the vacancy created by former MLA Grant Jackson’s jump to federal politics.Provincial byelection to fill vacancy made when former MLA Grant Jackson jumped to federal politicsCBC News · Posted: Aug 26, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoCandidates (left-right) Ray Berthelette of the NDP, Liberal Stephen Reid and Progressive Conservative Colleen Robbins are running in the Spruce Woods provincial byelection. (Warren Kay/CBC)Voters in the southwestern Manitoba constituency of Spruce Woods will choose a new elected representative on Tuesday to fill the vacancy created by former MLA Grant Jackson’s jump to federal politics.Spruce Woods has been without an elected representative since March, when Jackson resigned to make a successful run to become the Conservative MP for Brandon-Souris.Spruce Woods has only elected PC MLAs since the constituency was created in 2011. The mostly rural constituency encompasses the north side of Brandon, nine rural municipalities surrounding the city and the communities of Souris, Glenboro, Rivers, Wawanesa and Oak Lake. The byelection is taking place only weeks before the deadline imposed by provincial legislation governing vacant seats. Premier Wab Kinew said in July he wanted to take the time to ensure his New Democrats would be competitive in a traditionally conservative constituency, opining that “there are no freebies” for the Progressive Conservative opposition.To that end, the NDP government announced or re-announced at least $334 million worth of funding for western Manitoba during the months leading up to the byelection call. Actually winning the seat, however, appears to be an uphill battle for the New Democrats, considering the PCs garnered between 61 and 73 per cent of the popular vote in the constituency during four general elections since 2011.The PC candidate in the byelection is Colleen Robbins, a former nurse and party official. She issued two apologies last week — one for old social media comments about residential schools and unions; the other for falsely asserting at a debate that gender-affirming surgery is being conducted on minors in Manitoba.The NDP candidate, former realtor Ray Berthelette, struggled to defend his party’s health-care record at the same debate. The NDP also faced a PC claim that Kinew violated election blackout rules by using his Instagram candidate to repeat a Berthelette promise to repair a section of Highway 2.The Liberal candidate is Stephen Read, a teacher.Voting hours on Tuesday are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voters in Spruce Woods choose new MLA today
