Lindsey took clean sweep of regional vote: Elections Manitoba data

Manitoba’s provincial election Oct. 3 turned in a win for the Manitoba NDP and for Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsey - who, according to recently released voting data, won the popular vote in every community in the Flin Flon constituency.

Election results by polling station were released by Elections Manitoba last week, showing a dominant victory for Lindsey. Out of 14 communities in the riding with polling stations, Lindsey won the overall vote in all 14 - though some were squeakers.

In Flin Flon, where the most votes were cast, Lindsey took a total of 996 votes, compared to 549 for Charlotte Larocque, the Progressive Conservative candidate and the only other option on the ballot - Lindsey took 64.1 per cent of the votes in Flin Flon.

The narrowest gap between the two candidates was in Snow Lake, where Lindsey finished with a slim majority, getting 50.5 per cent of the votes - 149 for Lindsey, 144 for Larocque. Lynn Lake and Sherridon also saw Lindsey getting vote percentages in the 60s - Lynn Lake turned in 53 votes for Lindsey and 27 for Larocque, giving Lindsey a 66.3 per cent total, while 18 votes were cast for Lindsey in Sherridon against 11 for Larocque, getting Lindsey 62 per cent.

Elsewhere, every other community in the region gave Lindsey more than 70 per cent of the votes. The ballot was most lopsided in Norway House and Cross Lake, the second and third largest communities by voter turnout in the riding - both turned in more than 90 per cent of the vote for Lindsey. In Cross Lake, where 469 people voted, only 15 votes were cast for Larocque, while 453 came in for Lindsey - Norway House saw 648 of 699 votes come in for Lindsey.

Within the 14 communities, 32 polls were held - all but two went Lindsey’s way. The sole exceptions were among election day votes cast at Snow Lake’s Laurie Marsh Community Hall, where Larocque got 96 votes to Lindsey’s 89, and in Flin Flon among residents of three area seniors’ housing facilities. Among residents of Hemlock Housing on Hemlock Drive, the Legion Jubilee Residence on Green Street and Rotary Court, Larocque took 26 of 30 votes cast, with Lindsey getting just four. While election day votes cast in Snow Lake went the way of the PCs, advance polls there broke 60 to 48 for Lindsey.

Lindsey will be one of 34 NDP MLAs to sit in Manitoba’s Legislative Assembly after this month’s election. Lindsey was not one of the NDP MLAs to be named as a provincial cabinet minister - 15 of his colleagues, including Premier Wab Kinew, will form the party's first cabinet since losing office in 2016.