La Verendrye (electoral district)

La Vérendrye is a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 1879, and has existed since that time, making it one of the oldest ridings in Manitoba.

Located in the southeastern region of the province, it is bordered within Manitoba by the neighbouring electoral divisions of Lac du Bonnet, Dawson Trail, Steinbach, Springfield-Ritchot, Midland, and Borderland to the west and north; by the province of Ontario to the east; and by the U.S. state of Minnesota to most of the south.

Communities in the riding include Buffalo Point (and Buffalo Point First Nation), Gardenton, Grunthal, Kleefeld, La Broquerie, Marchand, Middlebro, New Bothwell, Otterburne, Piney, St. Malo, St-Pierre-Jolys, Sarto, Sprague, Stuartburn, Sundown, Vassar, Vita, and Woodridge. The Lake of the Woods' Buffalo Bay is also in the riding.

La Vérendrye was a hotly contested riding between the Liberals and Conservatives in its earliest years. After 1922, it became dominated by the Progressives, who later became the Liberal-Progressives before metamorphosizing into the Liberals again. It remained with the Liberals even as the party dwindled to third-party status in the 1960s. The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba (PCs) seized the riding in 1973 and held it for the next three decades, during which time it was usually fairly safe for the PCs.

In the 1999 election, Ron Lemieux became the first New Democrat to be elected for the constituency. He was re-elected in the 2003 election with almost 60% of the popular vote. The boundary changes of 2008 greatly changed the borders of the riding, which contributed to the decisive victory of PC candidate Dennis Smook in the 2011 election. Lemieux was personally re-elected to the newly created riding of Dawson Trail.

The La Vérendrye riding has remained under PCs since 2011, with Konrad Narth most recently being elected in October 2023 to replace retiring MLA Smook.

The riding is named for Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, explorer and fur trader under whose authority Fort Rouge was built in 1738 in what is now Winnipeg.

Demographics
The riding's population in 1996 was 19,558. In 1999, the average family income was $49,308, and the unemployment rate was 5.9%. Manufacturing accounts for 12% of the riding's industry, followed by the service sector at 11%.

Before the electoral boundaries redistricting done prior to the 2011 election, La Verendrye had the second-highest francophone population in Manitoba (after St. Boniface), at 23% of the total population. Nine percent of the riding's residents were German, and 7% were Indigenous.

As of the 2021 census, the riding has a total population of 25,185, 92.5% of whom are Canadian citizens. The median age of constituents is 32.8. The construction industry accounts for 15.2% of the riding's labour force, followed by agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting at 14%.

People of German ethnicity now make up the largest ethnic or cultural group of the riding's population with 25.3%, followed by Mennonites at 17.6% and French at 14.5%. Seventeen point two percent of the population were identified to have Indigenous identity.

As of 2021, the community includes 2 hospitals, 4 personal care homes, and 17 schools.