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Votes have been cast, and the results are in.
Manitoba has voted in an NDP majority government, making Wab Kinew Manitoba’s first-ever First Nations Premier.
In the Dauphin riding, it was a neck-and-neck race that ran quite late, but it also ended with an NDP victory.
MLA-elect Ron Kostyshyn notes that the win was not without a great deal of effort.
"I did my best and I put in a 120 per cent effort into the constituency to try and have people support me. And I guess at the end of the day it is their judgment."
The night went much later than either party expected, as the tabulation of votes did not finish until well after midnight.
NDP Campaign Manager David Howe was a little caught off guard by just how late the Dauphin riding tabulation took.
"I think the election was run reasonably well, but I am a little disappointed with the tabulating machines. I have seen it done in Ontario where it takes minutes to report and you have a government declared 20 minutes into the night amd most seats are declared within half an hour. I am totally shocked that this process was slower than counting by hand ."
The race was rather long in the riding, and while the PC party didn't win, local Campaign Manager Miles Meyer said their efforts certainly made it exciting.
"I knew it was going to be a tight race. I think that the polls said the NDP would win (Dauphin) in a landslide but I think we put the work in to at the very minimum make this very close. And I think it is a matter of who came out to vote."
Local PC candidate Gord Wood says his campaign efforts gained a lot of support.
"I have to say thank you to the constituents of Dauphin and the area. I appreciate the support they gave us, the kind words, and the excitement that people got behind us. So we will take that as small victories and we will move on."
With all 46 polls reporting, Kostyshyn had 4,810 votes, compared to 4,467 for Wood.
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Out in the fields, harvest is maintaining its momentum according to the weekly Manitoba crop report.
The province is 12 percent ahead of the 5-year average, with most spring cereal crops finished up.
in the northwest region, the mid to low 20's temperature and lack of frost kept harvest moving along, until the rain of the weekend rolled in grinding things to a halt.
both spring wheat and canola are nearing completion, but the is some concern around soybean crops, as the late-season rain is preventing them from drying down.
Overall, harvest is 85 percent complete, and crops are primarily in fair to mostly good conditions.
Tune in to the noon-hour edition of Agri-view for a more in-depth look a the Manitoba Crop Report.
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While the Dauphin riding did switch from Tory blue to NDP orange last night, the same could not be said for other neigbouring ridings.
Rick Wowchuk earned a third straight term as MLA for Swan River, as the PC candidate earned nearly 63 per cent of the vote to finish well ahead of Andy Maxwell of the NDP and Don McKenna of the Keystone Party.
Meanwhile, both Greg Nesbitt in Riding Mountain and Jodie Byram in Agassiz also had convincing wins for the PC's, with both garnering close to 64 per cent of the vote in their respective ridings.
The race in Interlake-Gimli was a little tighter, but in the end, it was incumbant PC Derek Johnson who won that riding by around 680 votes over his NDP rival.
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While Manitoba New Democrats are celebrating their return to power in the province and the election of Canada's first-ever First Nations provincial premier, both the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals will begin the search soon for new leaders.
Despite winning her seat in Tuxedo, Heather Stefanson announced her plans to step down as PC party leader after her party was reduced to opposition status in the Manitoba Legislature.
Stefanson won a party leadership race in 2021 to take over from the retiring Brian Pallister.
Dougald Lamont stepped aside from the Liberal top job after his party was reduced to just one seat in the legislature.
Lamont himself lost his seat in St. Boniface to the NDP.
The NDp were unofficially elected or leading in 34 ridings as of early Wednesday morning, while the Progressive Conservatives held 22 seats.
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Dauphin constituency (46 out of 46 polls reporting)
Ron Kostyshyn (NDP) 4810
Gord Wood (PC) 4467
Swan River constituency (42 out of 45 polls reporting)
Rick Wowchuk (PC) 5214
Andy Maxwell (NDP) 2522
Don McKenna (Keystone) 413
Riding Mountain (50 of 53 polls reporting)
Greg Nesbitt (PC) 4787
Wayne Chacun (NDP) 2378
Eileen Smerchanski (LIB) 331
Agassiz (34 of 35 polls reporting)
Jodie Byram (PC) 4403
Danica Wiggins (NDP) 1516
Mark Wilson (KEY) 698
Richard Davies (LIB) 305
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A 28-year-old man from Scanterbury has been charged following a two-vehicle crash just east of Dauphin on Friday night.
RCMP say it happened around 7:30 pm at the intersection of Highway 20 and Highway 20A.
They add a southbound black Chevrolet pickup truck failed to stop at the intersection and collided with an eastbound blue Chevrolet SUV.
All five people in the SUV were transported to the hospital with injuries and subsequently released.
The driver of the truck was also treated in the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
He was subsequently charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and was released from custody pending a future court date.
No word on if the female passenger in the truck was injured as a result of the crash.
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The campaigning is now complete, and now it is time for the residents of Manitoba to decide who will form their next provincial government.
Here in the Dauphin constituency, voters have a choice between two candidates in this election.
Gord Wood is looking to hold onto the riding for the Progressive Conservatives.
"I will be exhausted when this is all done. There has been a lot of door-knocking and a lot of visiting and events and things like that, but it certainly has been an exciting process. I have learned a lot and met a lot of people and have had lots of great conversations with people. But I am excited to where our PC team can take our region and the province, so I am really hoping for the best outcome."
For his first foray into provincial politics, Wood says it was everything he expected it to be.
"Everything and More yes! It was certainly a learning experience for me and it was good to see the behind-the-scenes of the operations. So certainly I will be very excited for when Tuesday comes, but a lot of nerves as well."
Wood is opposed by former MDP agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn, who also says the campaign went as they expected it to go.
"We put on 16,000 km and made sure I had the chance to visit all the people in the constituency. A number of questions have always come up and it sounds like people are concerned after seven years of the PC government. People are not happy about what has happened in the last seven years."
Kostyshyn adds he is not taking anything for granted going into today.
"I think what we have heard from the general public is that obviously, the record shows that health care is a disaster. The education component has got its challenges and I think we are going to be dealing with additional issues when we talk about settlement of contracts. Addressing the crime issue I think there is no doubt in our mind that we all witness this almost on a daily basis. And the jail closure obviously was a major economic downgrade."
Polls are open from 8 am until 8 pm tonight.
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Today is election day in Manitoba.
Mike Ambrose with Elections Manitoba says polls will be open from 8 am to 8 pm today.
"Anyone at the polls waiting in line by 8 pm will still get the chance to vote. Voters should bring ID. They will need to show either one piece of government-issued photo ID with their address, something like a driver's licence, or any two other pieces of ID. One of those could be their voter information card."
In the Dauphin constituency, voting takes place at the following locations :
(Alphabetically by community)
Something brand new for this election - Voters can now vote at any polling place in their electoral division on election day. Once there, voters will cast their ballot on a first come, first served basis.
You can go online to www.electionsmanitoba.cam or call 204-945-3225 to find out where the nearest polling station is to you.
"We will be using vote counting machines. So voters will bring their paper ballot to the ballot box and the voting officer will put it into the vote counting machine. Then at the close of voting, the voting officer will run a report out of those machines, and that will produce the tally at the end of the night. Some voters will still be using the manual style ballot boxes, and those will be hand counted."
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The average price of gasoline continues to fall across the province, according to the website GasBuddy.com.
The average price dropped a further 1.9 cents a litre over the past week to 159.66 cents.
That also represents a 5.5 cent decrease from exactly one month ago and is 24.9 cents a litre cheaper than on this day exactly one year ago.
Here in Dauphin, the price of regular gasoline is around 162.9 cents a litre at most stations.
The national average price is 161.75 cents a litre, which is down 1.7 cents from last week.
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Many political pundits are predicting the Dauhin riding will be a close race Tuesday night.
The leaders of Manitoba's two main political parties see the importance of winning the Dauphin riding in their efforts to form the next government.
Both Wab Kinew of the NDP and PC party leader Heather Stefanson paid visits to the city during the election campaign.
Progressive Conservative leader Heather Stefanson was in Dauphin on Friday to support local candidate Gord Wood.
He says the visit was definitely a huge boost to his campaign.
"It's a good support. It just validates what we are doing here. We know we have support from the PC Party and we have had that support all the way through the campaign. Her coming here at the end of the campaign just shows that she wants us to retain this seat."
One of Kinew's visits included an announcement to build a new justice centre in Dauphin, to replace the jail that was previously closed.
Local NDP candidate Ron Kostyshyn says Kinew conected well with local residents during his visits.
"Wab Kinew is showing his credibility as he speaks, he connects with the general public. Here is a man that is a common sense thinker and is an individual that is connected to all people in the province of Manitoba."
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Five people are dead following a single-vehicle crash near Swan River.
RCMP say it happened around 5 pm on Saturday on Highway 83, about 19 km south of the community.
They say an SUV carrying all five people was traveling northbound when the vehicle went off the road and rolled into a field.
All five people in the car were not wearing their seatbelts at the time and were thrown from the vehicle.
RCMP believe speed was a factor in the crash.
Two women, aged 42 and 26, as well as three men aged 37, 36, and 25, were all pronounced dead at the scene.
No names or hometowns of the deceased have been released.
Swan River RCMP continues to investigate along with a Forensic Collision Reconstructionist.
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