The voters in the Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman riding have once again elected incumbent James Bezan as their member of Parliament, making him Manitoba’s longest-serving MP.
First elected in 2004 on behalf of the Conservative Party, Bezan has won eight consecutive elections. Next month, he will have served as MP for 21 years — and counting.
In the 45th general election, Bezan received 32,788 votes (60.2 per cent) in the riding, followed by Rhonda Nichol of the Liberal Party, who earned 16,570 votes (30.4%).
Josef Estabrooks of the NDP ranked third with 3,535 votes (6.5%). Wayne James of the Green Party received 709 (1.3%), Byron Gryba of the People’s Party of Canada received 473 (0.9%) and Chris Riddell of the United Party received 404 (0.7%).
After the election wrapped up, Bezan shared a few thoughts during a weekend in the community before heading back to Ottawa.
“I’m just incredibly humbled to be elected again by the people of this great riding of Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman. It is an honour and a privilege to be the representative in the House of Commons,” Bezan said.
“I’ll continue to strongly advocate for our riding, for all the different industries we have — especially with our farmers, manufacturers, commercial fishery and fighting for our steel industry that we have over in Selkirk. I’ll always be fighting for them and advocating for our communities, making sure that as they apply for infrastructure dollars that we’re not getting left behind by other interests that government might have.”
During the lead-up to the election on April 28, Bezan’s campaign team knocked on more than 6,000 doors — with Bezan and his wife Kelly knocking on nearly 5,000 doors themselves.
“Every election we try to get to different parts of communities that we don’t get to knock in every time, but we can’t get to every door. It’s just too big a riding with over 70 communities,” he said.
“We drove over 8,500 kilometres getting into all the communities, and our team made over 10,000 phone calls. So we got to have a lot of conversations with our constituents and really gauge what people were thinking when they were about to cast their ballot — and it was very different for different people.”
With plenty of experience in campaigning, Bezan found this election was like none other.
“It was a roller coaster. This was a very unique election with the Trump factor, the change of Trudeau quitting all of a sudden and the collapse of the NDP,” he said.
“And the narrative on the doorsteps changed three times during the entire election. It was interesting how things were so fluid on the doorsteps.”
At the beginning of the election period, Bezan observed that conversations focused mainly on Trump. At the halfway mark, more people were talking about affordability, cost of living and government spending. Then during the last week, the focus shifted to change.
At the same time, Bezan noticed a demographic differential in constituents’ concerns.
“Seniors were more concerned about the Trump factor and making sure that we would never be the 51st state — which I think all of us agree should never happen,” he said.
“For the younger generation, it was about affordability, cost of housing and the state of the economy. There was really a divide between generations.”
Similarly, the conversations also varied among communities.
“There was no doubt in the more rural communities it was more about change and making sure that the rural interests were being represented — everything from agriculture issues to commercial fisheries to environmental issues,” he said.
“As you go into the larger centres that we have, it was different conversations all together. It was more on the Trump factor. It was an interesting election that was quite a bit different than any of the other ones that I’ve run.”
Looking ahead to the summer months, Bezan will be a familiar face at events and celebrations throughout the riding.
“I try to get to as many events as possible knowing that the weekends in the summertime are not mine. They belong to the people of the riding. That’s why I try to get out to their events. It’s a great time to engage with people one on one and talk about the issues,” he said.
“It’s also a way to celebrate each and every community in their own special way whether it’s Quarry Days in Stonewall or the tractor pull in Teulon or the many rodeos that we have in the riding. The fairs and the festivals are part of our culture that we have in Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman.”
In total, Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman constituents cast 54,810 votes, which includes 331 rejected ballots. With 76,591 electors on the list, voter turnout was 71.6 per cent. The average voter turnout in Manitoba was 67.3 per cent, while the Canada-wide average was 68.7 per cent.
