Byelection results expected Tuesday night in traditional Manitoba Tory stronghold – Winnipeg

Voters are going to the polls today in a provincial byelection in western Manitoba.

The Spruce Woods riding is largely rural and has voted strongly for the Progressive Conservatives since it was formed in 2011.

The Tories, who are now in Opposition, have never received less than 60 per cent of the vote, but the governing New Democrats are riding high in provincewide opinion polls and have made a series of promises and announcements in the area.

The seat has been vacant since March, when Grant Jackson resigned to run for the federal Conservatives in the April general election.

Colleen Robbins, a longtime party volunteer, has been chosen by the Tories for the byelection race.

The NDP have nominated Ray Berthelette, who recently worked as an executive assistant to cabinet minister Glen Simard, while the Liberals have selected Stephen Reid, a teacher in Brandon.

The outcome of the vote won’t affect the NDP’s majority in the legislature, where the party has 34 of the 57 seats to the Tories’ 20. There is one Liberal and one Independent.

A win in Spruce Woods would give the NDP, whose seats are mainly concentrated in Winnipeg and the province’s north, a breakthrough in the rural southwest corner of the province. The riding contains a part of Brandon, but most of its area consists of small towns and farmland.

The NDP pulled off a major upset last year winning a byelection in the Tuxedo seat in Winnipeg, which had always voted for the Progressive Conservatives and had been the seat of two former Tory premiers.

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