La Verendrye (electoral district)

La Verendrye is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 1879, and has existed since that time.

La Verendrye

Manitoba electoral district
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
MLA	Dennis Smook Progressive Conservative
District created	1879
First contested	1879
Last contested	2019

La Verendrye is located southeastern region of Manitoba. It is bordered to the west by Dawson Trail, Emerson, Steinbach, and St. Paul, to the north by Lac Du Bonnet, and to the east by the province of Ontario.

Communities in the riding include Falcon Lake, Gardenton, Grunthal, Hadashville, Piney, Pointe du Bois, Sprague, Stuartburn, Sundown, and West Hawk Lake. The Whiteshell Provincial Park and Sandilands Provincial Forest are also in the riding.

The riding's population in 1996 was 19,558. In 1999, the average family income was $49,308, and the unemployment rate was 5.90%. Manufacturing accounts for 12% of the riding's industry, followed by the service sector at 11%.

Before the electoral boundaries redistricting done prior to the 2011 election, La Verendrye had the second-highest francophone population in Manitoba (after St. Boniface), at 23% of the total population. Nine per cent of the riding's residents were German, and 7% were aboriginal.

La Verendrye was a hotly contested riding between the Liberals and Conservatives in its earliest years. After 1922, it became dominated by the Progressives, who later became the Liberal-Progressives before metamorphosising into the Liberals again. It remained with the Liberals even as the party dwindled to third-party status in the 1960s. The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba seized the riding in 1973 and held it for the next three decades, during which time it was usually fairly safe for the Tories.

In the 1999 election, Ron Lemieux became the first New Democrat to be elected for the constituency. He was re-elected in the 2003 election with almost 60% of the popular vote. The boundary changes of 2008 greatly changed the borders of the riding, which contributed to the decisive victory of PC candidate Dennis Smook in the 2011 election. Ron Lemieux was personally re-elected to the newly created riding of Dawson Trail.

List of provincial representatives

Name	Party	Took Office	Left Office
Maxime Goulet	Government/Conservative	1879	1882
Louis Prud'homme	Cons	1882	1883
Maxime Goulet	Independent Conservative	1883	1884
Louis Prud'homme	Cons	1884	1885
James Prendergast	Conservative-Liberal	1885	1888
	Lib	1888	1888
William Lagimodiere	Lib	1888	1892
Theophile Pare	Cons	1892	1899
William Lagimodiere	Lib	1899	1907
Jean Lauzon	Cons	1907	1910
William Molloy	Lib	1910	1914
Jean Lauzon	Cons	1914	1915
Philippe Talbot	Lib, later Independent	1915	1920
	Independent	1920	1922
	Prog	1922	1932
	Lib-Prog	1932	1936
Sauveur Marcoux	Lib-Prog	1936	1951
Edmond Brodeur	Lib-Prog	1952	1958
Stan Roberts	Lib-Prog	1958	1961
	Lib	1961	1962
Albert Vielfaure	Lib	1962	1969
Leonard Barkman	Lib	1969	1973
Robert Banman	PC	1973	1986
Helmut Pankratz	PC	1986	1990
Ben Sveinson	PC	1990	1999
Ron Lemieux	NDP	1999	2011
Dennis Smook	PC	2011

Electoral results

2019 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Progressive Conservative	Dennis Smook	5,305	72.81	+2.04	$13,774.87
	New Democratic	Erin McGee	1,052	14.44	+4.96	$150.00
	Liberal	Lorena Mitchell	929	12.75	+3.39	$2,425.53
Total valid votes				100.0
Total rejected ballots
Turnout
Eligible voters

2016 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Dennis Smook	5,262	70.77	+7.02
	Green	Janine Gibson	724	9.74	+4.74
	New Democratic	Echo Asher	705	9.48	-16.46
	Liberal	Bill Paulishyn	696	9.36	+4.05
Total valid votes			7,487	100.0
Eligible voters			12,767
Source: Elections Manitoba[1]

2011 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Progressive Conservative	Dennis Smook	4,480	63.75		$20,489.51
	New Democratic	Maurice Tallaire	1,823	25.94		$11,908.18
	Liberal	Monica Guetre	373	5.31	–	$4,148.98
	Green	Janine Gibson	351	5.00	–	$0.00
Source: Elections Manitoba[2]

2007 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Ron Lemieux	4,018	51.12	−6.95	$34,191.10
	Progressive Conservative	Bob Stefaniuk	2,973	37.82	+3.26	$27,029.65
	Liberal	Roland Chaput	490	6.23	−1.13	$1,028.66
	Independent	Jay Murray	379	4.82	+4.82	$2,616.77
Total valid votes			7,834	99.67
Rejected and declined votes			26
Turnout			7,860	60.07	+7.53
Electors on the lists			13,129

[3]

2003 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Ron Lemieux	3,881	57.82	+17.30	23,896.26
	Progressive Conservative	Gerard Simark	2,310	34.42	−4.87	16,342.17
	Liberal	Paula Ryplanski Marsch	492	7.33	−9.68	980.01
Total valid votes			6,683	99.58
Rejected and declined votes			29
Turnout			6,712	52.54	−15.91
Electors on the lists			12,775

[4]

1999 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Ron Lemieux	3,553	41.02		$25,839.00
	Progressive Conservative	Ben Sveinson	3,367	39.09		$27,578.30
	Liberal	Léon Morrissette	1,465	17.01	–	$16,544.56
	Manitoba	Bonnie Fedak	211	2.45		$1,880.50
Total valid votes			8,576
Rejected and declined votes			37
Turnout			8,613	68.45
Electors on the lists			12,582

[5]

1990 Manitoba general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Ben Sveinson	3,731	44.49	-10.00
	Liberal	Clair Noel	2,718	32.41	-4.29
	New Democratic	Ronald Fiola	1,938	23.11	+14.30
Total valid votes			8,033
Rejected votes			26
Turnout			8,413	66.68
Electors on the lists			12,617

1969 Manitoba general election: La Verendrye
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Leonard Barkman	1,933	52.17
	Progressive Conservative	John Blatz	1,051	28.46
	New Democratic	Elmer Reimer	721	19.46
Total valid votes			3,705	100.00
Rejected and discarded votes			29
Turnout			3,734	50.64
Electors on the lists			7,369

Previous boundaries

Boundaries of La Verendrye in 1997, highlighted in red.

References

1. "Candidates: 41st General Election". Elections Manitoba. 29 March 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
2. "Election Returns: 40th General Election". Elections Manitoba. 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 2010-08-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - 2007 Results
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-08-04. Retrieved 2009-12-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - 2003 Results
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-08-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - 1999 Results