River Heights (electoral district)

River Heights

Manitoba electoral district
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
MLA	Jon Gerrard Liberal
District created	1957
First contested	1958
Last contested	2019

River Heights is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 1957, and formally came into existence in the 1958 provincial election. The riding is located in the south-central region of the City of Winnipeg.

River Heights is bordered on the east by Lord Roberts and Fort Rouge, to the south by Fort Whyte, to the north by Wolseley, and to the west by Tuxedo.

The riding's population in 1996 was 19,950. The riding's character is middle-class and upper-middle class. In 1999, the average family income was $77,701, and the unemployment rate was 5.90%. River Heights includes many of Winnipeg's oldest and most stately homes: the average value of dwelling house in the riding in 1999 was $117,937.

River Heights has a significant Jewish population, at 9% of the total. 38.5% of the riding's residents have university degrees, the highest percentage in the province. Voter turnout also tends to be extremely high in this riding, usually at over 80% of the eligible population.

The service sector accounts for 15% of the River Heights's industry, with educational services following at 14%.

From 1958 to 1986, River Heights was represented by members of the Progressive Conservative Party. Since that time, however, it has generally been represented by leaders of the provincial Liberal Party. Sharon Carstairs represented the riding from 1986 until her appointment to the Senate of Canada in 1994, and Jon Gerrard has represented the riding since 1999.

The Liberal Party has many prominent backers in this riding, including members of the Asper family (see Izzy Asper).

List of provincial representatives

Assembly	Years	Member		Party
25th	1958-1959		W.B. Scarth	Progressive Conservative
26th	1959-1962
27th	1962-1966		Maitland Steinkopf
28th	1966-1969		Sidney Spivak
29th	1969-1973
30th	1973-1977
31st	1977-1979
	1979-1981		Gary Filmon
32nd	1981-1986		Warren Steen
33rd	1986-1988		Sharon Carstairs	Liberal
34th	1988-1990
35th	1990-1994
Riding was vacant from 1994-1995
36th	1995-1999		Mike Radcliffe	Progressive Conservative
37th	1999-2003		Jon Gerrard	Liberal
38th	2003-2007
39th	2007-2011
40th	2011-2016
41st	2016–2019
42nd	2019-present

Electoral results

2019 Manitoba general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Jon Gerrard	5,038	54.05	+2.15	$20,360.48
	Progressive Conservative	Susan Boulter	2,276	24.42	-10.16	$15,457.28
	New Democratic	Jonathan Niemczak	1,346	14.44	+8.58	$2,138.19
	Green	Nathan Zahn	661	7.09	-0.56	$0.00
Total valid votes				100.0
Total rejected ballots
Turnout
Eligible voters

2016 Manitoba general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Jon Gerrard	5,230	51.90	+5.99	$24,782.14
	Progressive Conservative	Tracey Maconachie	3,485	34.58	+1.82	$35,477.22
	Green	Michael Cardillo	771	7.65	+4.08	$1,180.63
	New Democratic	Shafagh Daneshfar	591	5.86	-11.90	$671.90
Total valid votes/Expense limit			10,077	100.00	-	$44,532.00
Total rejected ballots			79	–	–
Turnout			10,156	72.70	–
Eligible voters			13,969
Source: Elections Manitoba

1990 Manitoba general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sharon Carstairs	5,467	47.97	-11.72
	Progressive Conservative	Shaun McCaffrey	4,601	40.37	+9.96
	New Democratic	Peter Sim	1,190	10.44	+1.1
	Libertarian	Clancy Smith	138	1.21	+0.65
Total valid votes			11,426	100.00	-
Rejected ballots			30	–
Turnout			11,396	81.46
Eligible voters			14,026
Source: Elections Manitoba

1988 Manitoba general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sharon Carstairs	6,620	59.69	+14.71
	Progressive Conservative	Bob Vandewater	3,373	30.41	-0.11
	New Democratic	Harry Daniels	1,036	9.34	-15.16
	Libertarian	Jim Weidman	62	0.56	n/a
Total valid votes			11,108	100.00	-
Rejected ballots			17	–	–
Turnout			11,091	87.07
Eligible voters			12,757
Source: Elections Manitoba

Previous boundaries

The 1999-2011 boundaries for River Heights highlighted in red