Niki Ashton

Niki Ashton MP
Member of Parliament for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski
Incumbent
Assumed office October 19, 2015
Preceded by	Riding Established
Member of Parliament for Churchill
In office October 14, 2008 – October 19, 2015
Preceded by	Tina Keeper
Succeeded by	Riding Abolished
Chair of the Standing Committee on Status of Women
In office 21 June 2011 – 14 November 2011
Minister	Rona Ambrose
Preceded by	Hedy Fry
Succeeded by	Irene Mathyssen
Personal details
Born	Niki Christina Ashton (1982-09-09) September 9, 1982 Thompson, Manitoba
Political party	New Democratic Party
Residence(s)	Thompson, Manitoba
Alma mater	University of Manitoba Carleton University
Profession	University lecturer, researcher, politician

Niki Christina Ashton MP (born September 9, 1982) is a Canadian politician. She is the New Democratic Member of Parliament for the federal electoral district of Churchill—Keewatinook Aski in Manitoba, Canada. She was first elected in the 2008 federal election.

A resident of Thompson, Manitoba, she is the daughter of former Manitoba provincial NDP cabinet minister Steve Ashton. She has been an instructor at the University College of the North.

Personal life

Ashton was born in Thompson and attended École Riverside School and R. D. Parker Collegiate. She later attended the Li Po Chun United World College in Hong Kong. She has a B.A in Global Political Economy from the University of Manitoba, an M.A in International Affairs from Carleton University and is currently in the process of completing her PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Art Mauro Centre at the University of Manitoba.

Later, she was a coordinator and promoter of volunteering at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. At the event, she assisted the team from China.

She has studied human rights in Canada, and was awarded the Ahmed Ali Hashi Human Rights Scholarship for her work.

Ashton speaks Greek, French, English and Spanish fluently. In 2011 it was reported that she was also studying Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and Cree.

Ashton married Ryan Barker in 2011. They separated in 2015 and divorced in 2017.

Career

Ashton in 2012.

In 2005, she defeated incumbent New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Bev Desjarlais for the NDP nomination due, in part, to the same-sex marriage issue after Desjarlais broke party ranks to vote against the Civil Marriage Act. Desjarlais subsequently quit the party and sat as an independent for the remainder of her term; she ran against Ashton as an independent candidate in the election in the Churchill riding in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Ashton's major themes in her campaign included getting federal funding for the University College of the North, as well as getting a federal government northern development agreement.

Although the labour unions in Thompson endorsed Ashton, the NDP vote nevertheless split between Ashton and Desjarlais, and the riding was won by Liberal Party candidate Tina Keeper.

Ashton defeated Keeper in the 2008 election to regain the riding for the NDP.

On November 7, 2011, in Montreal, Ashton launched her campaign as the ninth person to join the 2012 NDP leadership race. She placed seventh with 5.7% of the vote at the March 24, 2012 leadership election and was eliminated on the first ballot.

Since first being elected in 2008, Ashton was elected as the Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women in the 40th Parliament of Canada, as has served as the NDP Post-Secondary and Youth critic, as the Rural and Community Development critic and from 2012 to 2014 as the Status of Women Critic. On January 23, 2015, Ashton was appointed as the Aboriginal Affairs Critic in Canada's Official Opposition.

After the 2015 federal election, Ashton was appointed the NDP critic for Jobs, Employment and Workforce Development in the 42nd Canadian Parliament.

Ashton announced her candidacy for the 2017 NDP leadership election on March 7, 2017.

Electoral record

2015 Canadian federal election: Churchill—Keewatinook Aski
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Niki Ashton	13,487	45.04	-6.66	–
	Liberal	Rebecca Chartrand	12,575	42.00	+22.14	–
	Conservative	Kyle G. Mirecki	3,090	10.32	-15.81	–
	Green	August Hastmann	537	1.79	-0.53	–
	Libertarian	Zachary Linnick	255	0.85	–	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			29,944	100.0		$232,138.03
Total rejected ballots			252	–	–
Turnout			30,196	–	–
Eligible voters			49,036
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-14.4%
Source: Elections Canada

2011 Canadian federal election: Churchill
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Niki Ashton	10,262	51.1%	+3.34%	–	–
	Conservative	Wally Daudrich	5,256	26.2%	+5.7%	–	–
	Liberal	Sydney Garrioch	4,087	20.4%	-8.34%	–	–
	Green	Alberteen Spence	471	2.3%	-0.99%	–	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			20,076	100.00%	-
Total rejected ballots			107	–
Turnout			20,183	–	–
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-1.18%

2008 Canadian federal election: Churchill
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Niki Ashton	8,735	47.40%	+18.96%
	Liberal	Tina Keeper	5,313	28.83%	-11.84%
	Conservative	Wally Daudrich	3,774	20.48%	+8.93%
	Green	Saara Harvie	606	3.29%	+1.68%
Total valid votes			18,428	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			–
Turnout			–	%
	New Democratic gain from Liberal		Swing		+15.4%

2006 Canadian federal election: Churchill
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Tina Keeper	10,159	40.67%	+2.32%	$75,179
	New Democratic	Niki Ashton	7,103	28.44%	-14.99%	$70,290
	Independent	Bev Desjarlais	4,283	17.15%	-26.28%	$23,042
	Conservative	Nazir Ahmad	2,886	11.55%	-3.57%	$23,875
	Green	Jeff Fountain	401	1.61%	-1.41%	$2,837
	Independent	Brad Bodnar	146	0.58%	–	$68.69
Total valid votes			–	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			–
Turnout			24,978	55.53%
	Liberal gain from New Democratic		Swing		+8.66%

External links

• Official website
• Niki Ashton – Parliament of Canada biography