Newly elected NDP MLAs hope their diverse backgrounds will bring new perspectives to the legislature
CBC
When Jelynn Dela Cruz found out she was going to be representing her own constituency at the Manitoba Legislature, she couldn't believe it at first.
She had been watching an election night broadcast on Tuesday when she saw a check mark appear on screen next to her leading vote count. That's when she and her family members instantly began jumping with excitement.
"Even though my family members were already so excited, and I was just feeding off of their energy, I still was in disbelief," she said.
"It wasn't until the party called me and my manager called me, came to the room to let us know that what we were seeing was real."
On Tuesday night, the 23-year-old NDP candidate for Radisson was elected to be one of Manitoba's next MLAs — the youngest woman believed to have ever held such a seat.
She joins two other soon-to-be NDP MLAs who are making history in Manitoba politics.
It's something the Gen-Zer doesn't take lightly.
"There is a debt of gratitude that I have to my family members, my other loved ones, my partner, folks in Radisson who were vulnerable enough to share their stories with me throughout this process," she said.
Dela Cruz, who's Filipino, is among a diverse slate of Manitoba NDP MLAs making their way into government. According to the party, 20 of the 34 NDP candidates elected on Tuesday are Indigenous or people of colour, while 14 of the 34 are women or gender-diverse.
Of the total 57 MLAs in the legislative assembly, 26 are new to the job, though one of those 26 is Ron Kostyshyn, who was previously an MLA, but is now returning. Ten of those 26 are from the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives.
Dela Cruz says she hopes her fresh perspective will help amplify the voices of Manitoba's youth.
"[We] young people have inherited a whole slate of challenges from previous generations when it comes to climate change here in Manitoba, when it comes to health care, cost of living," Dela Cruz, a former president of the University of Manitoba Students' Union, told CBC News on Friday.
"One voice that has been distinctly, I think, missed — and if not missed, then not taken seriously — has been youth."
Like Dela Cruz, Jennifer Chen, the newly elected NDP MLA for Fort Richmond, is potentially making history.
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