Manitoba votes 2019: Brandon East riding profile

• About the riding
• Voting history
• News stories from Brandon East
• Meet the candidates
• More riding profiles fromCBCManitoba

Brandon East coversthe east side of Brandon, east of 18th Street and south of the Assiniboine River. The riding first appeared in a Manitoba election in 1969, when voters elected NDP MLA Len Evans. Evans stayed in office in the area until 1999.

The riding's population is 23,045, according to the ManitobaElectoral Divisions Boundary Commission. The riding lost about 20 per cent of its northern geographical area to Spruce Woods when the commission redrew riding boundaries in 2018.

Brandon is Manitoba's second-largest city, with an official population of48,859 according to the 2016 census a six per cent jump over the 2011 census.The southwestern Manitoba hub also servessurrounding communities and farmlandand drawsits workforce from 27 nearby municipalities, according to Economic Development Brandon.

The median age of the riding's population is34, according to the 2018 riding profileprepared by theManitoba Bureau of Statistics, based on information from the 2016 census.

More facts about Brandon East:

• 20 per cent of the riding's population is made up of immigrants, according to theprovince's riding profile.
• Agriculture is the city's main industrial cluster, according to Economic Development Brandon.
• The city is a service centre for roughly 180,000 people in Brandon and surrounding areas, according toEconomic Development Brandon.

Voting history

The riding was an NDP stronghold until the 2016 provincial general election. Longtime NDP MLA Len Evans represented the area from its creation in 1969 until 1999, when NDP candidate Drew Caldwell won the riding. Then, in 2016, Progressive ConservativeLen Isleifson beat Caldwell by1,135 votes.

• 1969 - 1995 elections: Len Evans (NDP).
• 1999 - 2011 elections: Drew Caldwell (NDP).
• 2016: Len Isleifson (Progressive Conservative).

Brandon East in the news

Meet the candidates

The nominated candidates for the 2019 election are:

• Len Isleifson(Progressive Conservative).
• Kim Longstreet (Liberal).
• Lonnie Patterson(NDP).

Candidates become official when they meet criteria set out in the province's Elections Act, including providing a statement of disclosure. In Brandon East, all candidates are official.

Findmore CBC Manitoba riding profiles here.