Candidates in Manitoba's largest riding race against the clock to reach northern voters

Federal election candidates in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski are racing to reach as many communities as possible before the April 28 election, but in Manitoba's northernmost riding — and its largest by land area — that's posing a challenge during a short campaign.

"We're boots on the ground, literally," said Liberal candidate Rebecca Chartrand, a business owner from Pine Creek First Nation who lives in Winnipeg.

"We've been in our vehicle driving to every community that we can get to," Chartrand told CBC News while door-knocking in Pimicikamak Cree Nation, about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg. 

Chartrand previously ran in the riding in the 2015 election, losing in a close race with the NDP's Niki Ashton. Chartrand got 42 per cent of the votes cast (12,575 votes) that year to Ashon's 45 per cent (13,487 votes).

Ashton won the following elections, in 2019 and 2021, by at least 3,100 ballots.

The incumbent NDP candidate said she and her team plan to visit 90 per cent of the communities in the riding during this campaign.

"I've been so proud to be able to fight for my home," said Ashton, who is from Thompson and has represented the riding since 2008.

"This is where I'm from, you know, born and raised. This is where I live with my family. And I see a lot of the challenges first-hand."

Churchill-Keewatinook Aski covers more than 420,000 square kilometres, making it several times larger in area than any other Manitoba riding, but has under 50,000 eligible voters, according to Elections Canada. In the 2021 federal election, voter turnout was just 36 per cent, compared to a provincial average of 76 per cent.

Chartrand said her campaign is focusing on the federal Liberal government's track record, which included $55 million in funding for a new health centre in Pimicikamak that opened in 2023. She's also promising big investments in the region.

"The types of things that we're going to fight for are better roads, better opportunities for employment," she said. "That can help reduce the high cost of living in northern communities."

That's a top priority for Leonard Ross, a mental health worker in Pimicikamak, who hasn't decided whether or not he will vote on April 28. But the rising cost of food is a growing concern for him.

He'd like to eat healthy and avoid junk food, but in a community like Pimicikamak, that comes at a very high price, said Ross.

"It's a win or lose kind of thing. When you want to eat healthy, healthy food is very expensive, vegetables and whatnot. Multigrain bread is very expensive," he said.