Two Winnipeg seats are changing hands, after Liberal candidate Doug Eyolfson won Winnipeg West back from Conservative incumbent Marty Morantz, and Conservative Colin Reynolds took Elmwood-Transcona from recently elected NDP MP Leila Dance in Canada’s 2025 election, CBC News projects.Emergency room physician and former MP Eyolfson’s win over incumbent MP and former Winnipeg city councillor Morantz in the moderately conservative Winnipeg West marks the third consecutive race between the two candidates, after Morantz previously unseated Eyolfson in the 2019 election and won again by a small margin in 2021.Eyolfson’s win for the Liberals comes after the riding recently expanded its boundaries, welcoming voters in the rural municipality of Rosser and residents of Tuxedo in Winnipeg, and had a name change from Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley.It follows a campaign defined by very different strengths for each camp: for Morantz, a ground game bolstered by a pair of very experienced political organizers, and for Eyolfson, the popular support of the Liberals within Winnipeg.Eyolfson said he was “almost shell-shocked, but … just so very, very happy” to finally reclaim the seat he lost in 2019.”It’s been a long time coming,” he said, adding he was “heartbroken” to have been previously ousted from the position.WATCH | ‘Still had butterflies,’ says returning Winnipeg West MP Doug Eyolfson:’Still had butterflies,’ says returning Winnipeg West MP Doug EyolfsonDoug Eyolfson is going back to Parliament Hill, after winning the Winnipeg West seat back for the Liberals. He lost it to Conservative Marty Morantz in 2019, and then lost a rematch with Morantz in 2021. Though Eyolfson said he felt optimistic, he still had some nervousness on Monday’s election day.”There was more work I wanted to do for the community and for the nation, and I’m so happy to be back to be able to do it,” he said Monday night.Meanwhile, former business association director Dance lost the Elmwood-Transcona seat in a rematch with electrician Reynolds, after she narrowly beat him in a September 2024 byelection held to replace NDP MP Daniel Blaikie after he stepped down from the role, in a win that proved the New Democrats could keep the seat without a member of the Blaikie family on the ballot — the first time that’s happened since the riding’s creation in the 1980s.In that byelection, the Liberal candidate got less than five per cent of the vote — but on election night, Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre had more than 20 per cent of the ballots cast in the riding, with 156 of 157 polls reporting as of 3 a.m. CT.On paper, Winnipeg’s easternmost riding should be an NDP stronghold — the party has won the riding in all but one election since it was formed in 1988, and the seat has not been held by a Conservative since 2011, when Stephen Harper led the right-of-centre party to a majority. It was also unique among Winnipeg ridings as the only one with a two-party race between the NDP and Conservatives.But recent boundary changes, coupled with the nationwide collapse in the NDP vote, offered the Conservatives a slight advantage, with Elmwood-Transcona no longer including a slice of North Kildonan in Winnipeg and expanding east across the Red River Floodway to include the Dugald area.WATCH | NDP will be back ‘bigger and stronger,’ says defeated Elmwood-Transcona MP:NDP will be back ‘bigger and stronger,’ says defeated Elmwood-Transcona MPLeila Dance, who was elected in the NDP Winnipeg stronghold of Elmwood-Transcona in a byelection last September, says the party’s showing in Monday’s election ‘isn’t the result we were hoping for across Canada,’ after losing her own seat to Conservative Colin Reynolds.Dance told reporters she thinks the changing situation in the U.S. over the last number of months and the effect of strategic voting by people who cast ballots for the Liberals instead of the NDP both played a role in the results in her riding.”Strategic voting, it doesn’t always work for everybody. It has changed this, and probably realistically did cost me this election,” she said. “But again, people need to vote with their hearts and what they believe in. And if that’s what people are believing, that’s what they’ve done.”CBC projected a Liberal win shortly after 9 p.m. CT, just a little over a half hour after polls closed in most of Canada.Heading into the election, the Conservatives held seven Manitoba seats, the Liberals held four and the NDP held three.New facesReynolds, who did not speak with media following his win, is one of several new faces CBC is projecting will be heading to Ottawa to represent Manitoba.That list also includes Liberal candidate Ginette Lavack, former executive director of Festival du Voyageur and the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre, who has been projected to win in St. Boniface-St. Vital, where she held on to the seat left vacant after former MP Dan Vandal announced he would not seek re-election.Liberal candidate Ginette Lavack, former director of the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre and Festival du Voyageur, has been projected to win in St. Boniface-St. Vital. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)In a speech to Lavack’s supporters Monday night, Vandal described Lavack as a natural fit for her new role.”When I made the decision not to run again, it was really important for all of us that my replacement be somebody that’s very good,” he said.In her acceptance speech, Lavack thanked Vandal, her volunteers and her voters.”This is an incredible night, and I’m deeply honoured and humbled to be standing here in front of you as your newly elected representative of St. Boniface-St. Vital,” she said. “The real work starts now.”Other new faces projected to head to Ottawa include former MLA Grant Jackson — who was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 2023 and resigned from his provincial seat to run federally in this election. Jackson is set to hold on to the Brandon-Souris stronghold seat for the Conservatives after former MP Larry Maguire announced he would not seek re-election.Former Manitoba MLA Grant Jackson will now sit as a member of Parliament, representing the federal riding of Brandon-Souris. The riding went into the election without an incumbent after former MP Larry Maguire announced he would not seek re-election. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)Jackson said he’ll do parts of the job differently than Maguire, who has been a mentor to him.”I don’t think that constituents will feel that there’s a huge change in their representation,” he said.Some of Jackson’s goals for his first term as MP will be to advocate for upgrades to the Brandon Municipal Airport and to push for more mining projects in the area, he said.As of 3 a.m. CT, the Winnipeg-area Kildonan-St. Paul remained too close to call. Conservative incumbent Raquel Dancho was leading with 205 of 208 polls reporting. Dancho is seeking to hold off Liberal candidate and political novice Thomas Naaykens to claim her third victory in the riding she was first elected to in 2019.The riding has voted Conservative six times during the past seven elections. New boundaries for Kildonan-St. Paul also appear to favour the Conservatives — since the 2019 election, the riding has been extended to the east and now encompasses Conservative-leaning polling areas inside the rural municipality of Springfield, including the Winnipeg bedroom community of Oakbank.You can see the latest on CBC’s live election results page.NDP crumblesSupport for the NDP has crumbled in Manitoba, with Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Leah Gazan the only one of the province’s three New Democrats going into the election who appeared to come out of it with her seat.The change mirrors one seen across the country, as Leader Jagmeet Singh announced he’ll be stepping aside after party support collapsed and he conceded his own B.C. riding.WATCH | NDP’s Leah Gazan on party’s future after election night: NDP’s Leah Gazan on party’s future after election nightRe-elected Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan said she’s confident the NDP will be able to rebuild itself after losing support in Canada’s 2025 election. CBC News has projected Gazan will be re-elected, holding off Rahul Walia, a 23-year-old former Liberal Party staffer who ran to unseat her in an inner-city Winnipeg riding that has voted NDP eight times during the nine elections since it was reformed in 1997.But fellow Manitoba New Democrats Dance and longtime Churchill-Keewatinook Aski MP Niki Ashton are projected to lose their seats in Manitoba — with Ashton projected to be unseated by Liberal candidate Rebecca Chartrand, the president and CEO of a management consulting company, in the province’s northernmost riding which Ashton has represented since 2008. Chartrand ran in the riding in the 2015 election, losing in a close race with the Ashton — getting 42 per cent of votes cast to Ashton’s 45 per cent. Ashton won the following elections, in 2019 and 2021, by at least 3,100 ballots.On Monday night, Chartrand said her win felt “surreal,” and said she thinks it was due in part to the riding’s large Indigenous population.”What we heard at the door is there hasn’t been a government that has worked more closely with Indigenous people, and that was under Trudeau,” she said. “And people are finally coming to … recognize that Mark Carney is the right person for the position, to keep things moving in the right direction in terms of reconciliation.”Meanwhile, Gazan celebrated her win but said it was a “hard night” for her party.”We were in the fight of our life in Winnipeg Centre, and you know why we won? We won because we believe in human rights at the centre in Winnipeg Centre,” she told supporters.Gazan said she’s prepared to work in the House of Commons even if the NDP don’t gain the 12 seats needed for official party status, adding she wants to tackle housing, addictions and slum landlords in her next term.”I’m going to hold the Liberal government to account,” she said.Conservatives keep rural seats, Liberals hold Winnipeg ridingsThe Conservative party will also hold on to five rural Manitoba strongholds, while the Liberals will keep four Winnipeg seats they held going into the election, CBC is projecting.That includes Branden Leslie in Portage-Lisgar, Ted Falk in Provencher, Dan Mazier in Riding Mountain and James Bezan in Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman, all Conservatives re-elected in rural strongholds.Liberal incumbents Kevin Lamoureux, Ben Carr and Terry Duguid will also keep their seats in Winnipeg North, Winnipeg South Centre and Winnipeg South, respectively, CBC projects.WATCH | Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux on party’s reversal of fortunes ahead of election:Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux on party’s reversal of fortunes ahead of electionLiberal MP Kevin Lamoureux said he feels a sense of relief and excitement after being re-elected in Winnipeg North, just months after polls suggested his party would likely lose Monday’s election. Duguid’s Winnipeg South riding held its reputation as a perfect bellwether for Canadian politics, with the Liberals projected to form government again. Since its formation in 1988, it has only elected candidates from the winning party on election night.Duguid, who went into this election as Manitoba’s only federal cabinet minister, told supporters Monday night he’s looking forward to serving the community once again.Liberal member of Parliament Terry Duguid waves to supporters after being elected in the Winnipeg South riding on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Catherine Moreau/Radio-Canada)”Thank you so much for this decisive win,” he said, adding he believes his re-election was due to his record of service in the riding, as well as economic threats from the United States.Lamoureux, who has now won six federal and five provincial elections, said there was a sense of relief and excitement in the air on Monday night.”This is my 11th victory. I get nervous every election day,” he said, crediting his re-election partly to a “pivotal time in Canadian history,” as U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty led to a turn of fate for the Liberals and a two-way race with the Conservatives.”I want you to know that I’m up for the battle. I have the experience.”
Winnipeg seats change hands as Liberals take Winnipeg West, Conservatives win Elmwood-Transcona, CBC projects
