La Verendrye (electoral district)

La Vérendrye is a provincial electoral district of Manitoba, Canada. It was created by redistribution in 1879, and has existed since that time, making it one of the oldest ridings in Manitoba.

Located in the southeastern region of the province, it is bordered within Manitoba by the neighbouring electoral divisions of Lac du Bonnet, Dawson Trail, Steinbach, Springfield-Ritchot, Midland, and Borderland to the west and north; by the province of Ontario to the east; and by the U.S. state of Minnesota to most of the south.

Communities in the riding include Buffalo Point (and Buffalo Point First Nation), Gardenton, Grunthal, Kleefeld, La Broquerie, Marchand, Middlebro, New Bothwell, Otterburne, Piney, St. Malo, St-Pierre-Jolys, Sarto, Sprague, Stuartburn, Sundown, Vassar, Vita, and Woodridge. The Lake of the Woods' Buffalo Bay is also in the riding.

La Vérendrye 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 metamorphosizing 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 (PCs) seized the riding in 1973 and held it for the next three decades, during which time it was usually fairly safe for the PCs.

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. Lemieux was personally re-elected to the newly created riding of Dawson Trail.

The La Vérendrye riding has remained under PCs since 2011, with Konrad Narth most recently being elected in October 2023 to replace retiring MLA Smook.

The riding is named for Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, explorer and fur trader under whose authority Fort Rouge was built in 1738 in what is now Winnipeg.

Demographics

The riding's population in 1996 was 19,558. In 1999, the average family income was $49,308, and the unemployment rate was 5.9%. 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 percent of the riding's residents were German, and 7% were Indigenous.

As of the 2021 census, the riding has a total population of 25,185, 92.5% of whom are Canadian citizens. The median age of constituents is 32.8. The construction industry accounts for 15.2% of the riding's labour force, followed by agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting at 14%.Template:Circular reference

People of German ethnicity now make up the largest ethnic or cultural group of the riding's population with 25.3%, followed by Mennonites at 17.6% and French at 14.5%. Seventeen point two percent of the population were identified to have Indigenous identity.

As of 2021, the community includes two hospitals, four personal care homes, and 17 schools.

Members of the Legislative Assembly

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	2023
Konrad Narth	PC	2023

Election results

2016

2016 provincial election redistributed results
Party		%
Template:Canadian party colour |	Progressive Conservative	78.6
Template:Canadian party colour |	Liberal	10.6
Template:Canadian party colour |	New Democratic	7.6
Template:Canadian party colour |	Green	3.2

1995

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1990

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1988

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1986

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1981

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1977

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1973

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1966

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1962

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1959

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1958

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1953

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1952 by-election

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1949

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1945

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1941

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1936

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1932

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1927

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1922

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1920

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1915

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1914

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1910

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1907

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1903

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1899

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1896

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1892

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1888

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1888 by-election

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1886

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1885 by-election

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1884 by-election

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1883

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1882 by-election

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1880 by-election

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1879

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Previous boundaries

File:LaVerendryeElectoral.png

Boundaries of La Verendrye in 1997, highlighted in red

See also

• List of Manitoba provincial electoral districts
• Canadian provincial electoral districts