WINNIPEG

Selkirk–Interlake–Eastman

CTV Winnipeg Published Tuesday, October 6, 2015 12:47PM CST Last Updated Tuesday, October 6, 2015 5:15PM CST

The Selkirk–Interlake–Eastman riding is between Lake Manitoba (west) and Lake Winnipeg (east). The area between the lakes extends south to take in the City of Selkirk and some Winnipeg suburbs.

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Conservative James Bezan will seek his fifth consecutive seat in the 2015 election. The incumbent was first elected in a 2004 byelection.

Candidates

Conservative: James Bezan (I)
Green: Wayne James
Liberal: Joanne Levy
Libertarian Party: Donald Grant
NDP: Deborah Chief

Last Election

Conservative incumbent James Bezan won his fourth consecutive seat by nearly 16,000 votes over New Democrat Sean Palsson.

History

PC Eric Stefanson won Selkirk from 1958 to 1968, when he lost to New Democrat Ed Schreyer.
Schreyer resigned as MP in 1969 when he won the NDP’s provincial leadership. He served two terms as premier, lost in 1977 and was appointed Governor General in 1979.
The riding was dropped in 1987.
Another notable was Liberal Jon Gerrard, who won Portage Interlake 1993-1997 and lost it when it became a renewed Selkirk riding to Reform's Howard Hilstrom. Gerrard was Minister of State for Science under Jean Chrétien, Manitoba Liberal leader 1998-2013 and still an MLA in 2015.
Hilstrom won for Alliance in 2000 and retired in 2004, when Conservative James Bezan won in a byelection.
In 2006, Bezan defeated Ed Schreyer, NDP; the first time a former governor general had returned to politics. Bezan won big in 2008 and 2011.

Boundaries

Between Lake Manitoba (west) and Lake Winnipeg (east). The area between the lakes extends south to take in the City of Selkirk and some Winnipeg suburbs.
Other centres include Gimli RM, Stonewall and Beausejour.
On Lake Winnipeg, the area around Gimli has the largest Icelandic community outside that country.

Industries

The rural area has cottages, tourism, grain and mixed farming.
Grahamdale in the northwest has tourism and cottage country, then farmland a bit south which extends eastward across the riding in rural RMs with hamlets supplying ranches and farms. This is the west of the Eastman Region which extends to Ontario.
Selkirk is northeast of Winnipeg and has Gardeau steel mills with fabricating plants and the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.
Gimli RM has a Seagram’s Crown Royal distillery and Faroex, makers of industrial components.
Stonewall, near Winnipeg, has turned its old limestone quarry into a lake and tourist spot.
Nearby is Stony Mountain penitentiary in Rockwood RM.
Beausejour is a farm supply centre.

See an interactive map of all Manitoba ridings here.