Churchill—Keewatinook Aski

Churchill—Keewatinook Aski
Manitoba electoral district
	Churchill—Keewatinook Aski in relation to other Manitoba federal electoral districts as of the 2013 Representation Order.
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
;
District created	1933
First contested	1935
Last contested	2015
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2011)[1]	85,148
Electors (2015)	47,940
Area (km²)[1]	494,701
Pop. density (per km²)	0.17
Census divisions	Division No. 19, Division No. 21, Division No. 22, Division No. 23
Census subdivisions	Thompson, Flin Flon, The Pas, Churchill, Norway House 17, St. Theresa Point, Kelsey, Opaskwayak Cree Nation 21E, Fort Alexander 3, Nelson House 170

Churchill—Keewatinook Aski (formerly Churchill) is a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1935. It covers the northern four-fifths of Manitoba, a vast wilderness area dotted with small municipalities and First Nations reserves. It was named after the town of Churchill, Manitoba, which resides on Churchill River. It is the fifth-largest riding in all of Canada.

The riding has the highest percentage of Aboriginal peoples (61.1%) in Canada.;^[2] the highest percentage of Cree speakers - both those whose mother tongue (21.6%) is Cree^[3] as well as those that use it as home language (16.6%)^[4] - is also to be found there.

History

The riding was created in 1933 when Nelson riding was abolished. The entire area of Nelson was transferred into the new riding of Churchill.

This riding gained territory from Selkirk—Interlake and was renamed "Churchill—Keewatinook Aski" during the 2012 electoral redistribution.

2006 election

Incumbent Bev Desjarlais^[5] ran as an independent candidate in the 2006 election. The New Democratic Party candidate was Niki Ashton,^[6] daughter of Manitoba Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and cabinet minister Steve Ashton. The Liberals fielded actress Tina Keeper, who won the election.^[7] The Conservatives nominated longtime party member and Flin Flon city councillor Nazir Ahmad,^[8] while the Greens ran former substitute teacher Jeff Fountain.^[9] Brad Bodnar, a resident of The Pas, ran as an independent.

2008 election

The New Democratic Party candidate was Niki Ashton,^[6] for the second time. The Liberals fielded incumbent Tina Keeper.^[10] The Conservatives nominated Wally Daudrich.^[11] The fourth candidate was Green Party of Canada new-comer, Saara Harvie.^[12]

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following Members of Parliament:

Parliament	Years		Party
Churchill Riding created from Nelson
18th	1935–1940	Thomas Crerar	Liberal
19th	1940–1945	Thomas Crerar	Liberal
20th	1945–1949	Ronald Moore	Co-operative Commonwealth
21st	1949–1953	George Weaver	Liberal
22nd	1953–1957	George Weaver	Liberal
23rd	1957–1958	Robert Simpson	Progressive Conservative
24th	1958–1962
25th	1962–1963
26th	1963–1965
27th	1965–1968
28th	1968–1972
29th	1972–1974	Charles Keith Taylor
30th	1974–1979	Cecil Smith
31st	1979–1980	Rod Murphy	New Democratic
32nd	1980–1984
33rd	1984–1988
34th	1988–1993
35th	1993–1997	Elijah Harper	Liberal
36th	1997–2000	Bev Desjarlais	New Democratic
37th	2000–2004
38th	2004–2005
38th	2005–2006		Independent
39th	2006–2008	Tina Keeper	Liberal
40th	2008–2011	Niki Ashton	New Democratic
41st	2011–2015	Niki Ashton	New Democratic
Churchill—Keewatinook Aski
42nd	2015–Present	Niki Ashton	New Democratic

Current Member of Parliament

Its Member of Parliament (MP) is Niki Ashton. Ashton ran in the 2006 election, but lost to Tina Keeper. She is a member of the New Democratic Party.

Election results