Dougald Lamont stepping down as Manitoba Liberal leader

Premier Wab Kinew's cabinet meets for first time Manitoba's new Premier Wab Kinew met with his newly sworn-in cabinet Thursday morning for the first time.

The Manitoba Liberals will be in search of a new leader as Dougald Lamont has announced he is stepping down as party leader.

"Ultimately the people have decided and sometimes you get caught in a wave and it doesn't seem to matter what you do," the Manitoba Liberal Leader said during a concession speech Tuesday evening.

“I always knew this was a possibility, but we had to hope beyond hope, and keep working, and do everything we could to run the best possible campaign that we could, and we did, and I’m incredibly proud,” Lamont added.

Lamont has been the MLA for St. Boniface since 2018 when he won in a byelection.

On top of stepping down Tuesday evening, Lamont also bowed out in the race for the constituency of St. Boniface. The CTV News Decision Desk declared Lamont losing to NDP candidate Robert Loiselle who grabbed 55 per cent of vote with 24 of 28 polls reporting.

The constituency has had NDP success in the past, the most recent person holding the area being former premier Greg Selinger.

Cindy Lamoureux (Tyndall Park) is presently the only Liberal candidate to have been declared a winner in their constituency.

Jon Gerrard, former Manitoba Liberal Leader, was also trailing in his River Heights constituency to the NDP’s Mike Moroz with 16/17 polls reporting

Gerrard said the party having only one member in the legislature has been a challenge in the past.

“I’ve been there as one lawmaker,” he said. “We will survive, the Liberal Party will proposer, but it certainly has faced a bit of backsliding.

“I will be there for Cindy a lot. Being alone in the legislature is not fun.”