Six Ukrainian Canadians Elected in Western Canada in the 2006 Election

How Ukrainian-Canadian Candidates Fared in the West

By Prof. Roman Yereniuk

The 2006 federal election saw 23 Ukrainian-Canadian candidates, from the four major parties, throwing their hat into the ring. Although the numbers looked impressive, only six were elected – four Conservatives and two New Democrats, hailing, two each, from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. Unfortunately, in the Conservative-Party sweep in Alberta, not one victorious candidate was of Ukrainian-Canadian origins.

The four Conservatives who were victorious are Mark Warawa (Langley, British Columbia), who more than doubled his closest opponent; Ed Komarnicki (Souris-Moose Mountain, Saskatchewan), who more than tripled the vote of the second-place Liberal candidate; Tom Lukiwski (Regina Lunsden-Lake Centre, Saskatchewan), who held a plurality, with some 4,700 votes over the second-place finisher, and James Bezan  (Selkirk-Interlake, in Manitoba), who defeated the former Governor General of Canada – Ed Schreyer (NDP), whose family’s roots are in Ukraine, by some 5,000 votes.

All four of these Conservative candidates were re-elected and will likely be important caucus members of the new Conservative government.  Bezan was the critic for Agriculture and Komarnicki was the critic for Labour and thus both may have a chance at a cabinet post.

The two victorious NDPers were Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North), who was re-lected for the fourth time and tripled the results her closest opponent, and newcomer Alex Atamanenko (British Columbia Southern Interior), who doubled the vote-count of the closest opponent. Wasylycia-Leis was the former Finance Critic for the NDP and is expected to once again have a high position in the enlarged NDP caucus in Ottawa.

Of the non-winners, six of the candidates with Ukrainian-Canadian roots finished second and another eight finished third. The three Green Party Ukrainian Canadians all finished a distant fourth.

Among the second-place finishers, two did fairly well–Ed Schreyer, NDP (Selkirk-Interlake, Manitoba) and Don Kossick, NDP (Blackstrap, Saskatchewan), who lost by 5,000 and 7,000 votes respectively.  The other four were all at least doubled in the vote count by the winners in their ridings. These included Cory Ollikka, Conservative (Westlock-St. Paul, Alberta); James  Jacuta, Liberal (Edmonton Leduc); Valerie Mushinski, NDP (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan); and Walter Kolisnyk, NDP (Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette).

The eight third-place finishers included five NDPers, two Liberals and an independent. The best-known of these was the community activist Andrew Hladyshevsky, Liberal (Edmonton Strathcona), who had an excellent team working for him, but could not overcome the Conservative sweep in Alberta.

All the winners and losers need to be congratulated for participating in the Canadian democratic process.  We are happy to note that all the candidates had replied personally or through their parties to the pre-election questionnaire sent to them by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and they supported the issues of major importance to our community.

We hope that the six elected MPs will not forget their Ukrainian-Canadian roots and will continue to promote multiculturalism, fairer immigration policies, a continuation of the excellent foreign relations with Ukraine and the democratic program/policy assistance for Ukraine and support the finalization of the issue of the internment of Ukrainians in Canada.

The Ukrainian-Canadian candidates in western Canada received close to a quarter of a million votes for their respective political programs from both the general Canadian community as well as many Ukrainian Canadians. Congratulations on a job well done, and good luck in you future endeavours. Hopefully, those that didn’t win will consider running again or trying at the provincial, municipal or school-board levels.  We need excellent Ukrainian-Canadian candidates at all levels of government in Canada.

Roman Yereniuk is long-time associate professor at St. Andrew’s Collage and a sessional instructor at the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba. He has written on Ukrainian-Canadian topics in the area of religion, education and politics.