Leah Gazan | |
|---|---|
 Gazan in 2019 | |
| Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre | |
| Assumed office October 21, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Robert-Falcon Ouellette |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 8,1972 [1] Thompson,Manitoba,Canada [2] |
| Political party | New Democratic Party |
| Residence(s) | Winnipeg,Manitoba [3] |
Leah Gazan MP (born April 8,1972) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Winnipeg Centre in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election. [4]
Leah Gazan was born in Thompson,Manitoba [2] to Abraham (Albert) Gazan [5] and Marjorie Anne Lecaine. [6] According to Gazan,both her parents are "survivors":her maternal grandmother,Adeline LeCaine,is Lakota,and her maternal grandfather is Chinese, [7] while her paternal grandparents are Jewish. [8] Gazan's father,born at The Hague,South Holland in 1938,was two and a half years old when the Germans invaded Holland,and spent the remainder of the war in hiding,sheltered by Dutch families. [9] Gazan's paternal grandmother,Gina Gazan,spent time in a concentration camp. [10]
Both of Gazan's parents were organizers for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation,the NDP's predecessor party. [11]
Before her first political campaign,Gazan was a lecturer at the Faculty of Education in University of Winnipeg. [12] [13] [14] She also served as president for the Social Planning council of Winnipeg. Gazan participated in Idle No More,and pushed for Bill C-262 to be passed by the House of Commons. [15] She also represented the province of Manitoba for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues advocating for acknowledgement of injustice perpetuated against Indigenous Canadian adoptive children. [16]
Gazan identifies as a socialist,like her parents. [11] [17] In 2019,Gazan won the NDP nomination for Winnipeg Centre over former Manitoba Attorney General Andrew Swan. [18] She subsequently defeated incumbent Liberal Robert-Falcon Ouellette for the seat of Winnipeg Centre,retaking the riding for the NDP. [19]
During the 43rd Canadian Parliament,NDP leader Jagmeet Singh appointed Gazan to be the Critic for Families,Children,and Social Development in the NDP's shadow Cabinet. She introduced one private member's bill,Bill C-323,An Act respecting a Climate Emergency Action Framework,which sought to require the Minister of the Environment to develop and implement a framework on achieving the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At a vote on March 24,2021,it was defeated with Liberal and Conservative Party MPs voting against. [20] [21]
In August 2020,Gazan introduced Motion 46 in the House of Commons of Canada,which would convert the Canada Emergency Response Benefit introduced by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic into a permanent basic income program. [22] In 2021 she spoke in the House of Commons in support of UBI. [23]
She presented a motion to the House of Commons to declare the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a Canada-wide emergency,which passed unanimously. The motion also called for the creation of a new system to send out alerts for missing people. [24]
| 2025 Canadian federal election : Winnipeg Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ** Preliminary results — Not yet official ** | ||||||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Tom Bambrick | 7,658 | 22.4% | |||||
| New Democratic | Leah Gazan | 13,524 | 39.5% | |||||
| Green | Gary Gervais | 389 | 1.1% | |||||
| People's | Donald Grant | 367 | 1.1% | |||||
| Liberal | Rahul Walia | 12,108 | 35.3% | |||||
| Animal Protection | Debra Wall | 213 | 0.6% | |||||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 34,259 | |||||||
| Total rejected ballots | ||||||||
| Turnout | 53.55% | |||||||
| Eligible voters | 63,978 | |||||||
| Source: Elections Canada [25] | ||||||||
| 2021 Canadian federal election : Winnipeg Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Leah Gazan | 14,962 | 50.3 | +9.1 | $95,075.71 | |||
| Liberal | Paul Ong | 8,446 | 28.4 | -5.3 | $34,450.58 | |||
| Conservative | Sabrina Brenot | 3,818 | 12.8 | -4.7 | none listed | |||
| People's | Bhavni Bhakoo | 1,229 | 4.1 | +2.6 | $3,735.84 | |||
| Green | Andrew Brown | 708 | 2.4 | -2.8 | $0.00 | |||
| Libertarian | Jamie Buhler | 373 | 1.3 | N/A | none listed | |||
| Animal Protection | Debra Wall | 213 | 0.7 | N/A | $4,055.48 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 29,749 | 98.8 | – | $101,566.38 | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 365 | 1.2 | ||||||
| Turnout | 30,114 | 52.2 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 57,672 | |||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | +7.2 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada [26] | ||||||||
| 2019 Canadian federal election : Winnipeg Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Leah Gazan | 13,073 | 41.21 | +13.2 | $81,565.86 | |||
| Liberal | Robert-Falcon Ouellette | 10,704 | 33.74 | -20.8 | $93,870.93 | |||
| Conservative | Ryan Dyck | 5,561 | 17.53 | +5.1 | $16,427.27 | |||
| Green | Andrea Shalay | 1,661 | 5.24 | +1.1 | none listed | |||
| People's | Yogi Henderson | 474 | 1.49 | – | none listed | |||
| Christian Heritage | Stephanie Hein | 251 | 0.79 | +0.1 | none listed | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 31,724 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 274 | |||||||
| Turnout | 31,998 | 54.2 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 59,012 | |||||||
| New Democratic gain from Liberal | Swing | +17.0 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada [27] [28] | ||||||||
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