Leah Gazan

Leah Gazan MP (born April 8, 1972) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Winnipeg Centre in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election.^[4]

Leah Gazan MP
Gazan in 2019
Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre
Incumbent
Assumed office October 21, 2019
Preceded by	Robert-Falcon Ouellette
Personal details
Born	(1972-04-08) April 8, 1972 (age 53)[1] Thompson, Manitoba, Canada[2]
Political party	New Democratic Party
Residence(s)	Winnipeg, Manitoba[3]

Early life

Leah Gazan was born in Thompson, Manitoba^[2] to Abraham (Albert) Gazan^[5] and Marjorie Anne Lecaine.^[6] According to Gazan, both her parents are "survivors": her maternal grandmother, Adeline LeCaine, is Lakota, and her maternal grandfather is Chinese,^[7] while her paternal grandparents are Jewish.^[8] Gazan's father, born at The Hague, South Holland in 1938, was two and a half years old when the Germans invaded Holland, and spent the remainder of the war in hiding, sheltered by Dutch families.^[9] Gazan's paternal grandmother, Gina Gazan, spent time in a concentration camp.^[10]

Both of Gazan's parents were organizers for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the NDP's predecessor party.^[11]

Before her first political campaign, Gazan was a lecturer at the Faculty of Education in University of Winnipeg.^[12][13][14] She also served as president for the Social Planning council of Winnipeg. Gazan participated in Idle No More, and pushed for Bill C-262 to be passed by the House of Commons.^[15] She also represented the province of Manitoba for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues advocating for acknowledgement of injustice perpetuated against Indigenous Canadian adoptive children.^[16]

Political career

Gazan identifies as a socialist, like her parents.^[11][17] In 2019, Gazan won the NDP nomination for Winnipeg Centre over former Manitoba Attorney General Andrew Swan.^[18] She subsequently defeated incumbent Liberal Robert-Falcon Ouellette for the seat of Winnipeg Centre, retaking the riding for the NDP.^[19]

During the 43rd Canadian Parliament, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh appointed Gazan to be the Critic for Families, Children, and Social Development in the NDP's shadow Cabinet. She introduced one private member's bill, Bill C-323, An Act respecting a Climate Emergency Action Framework, which sought to require the Minister of the Environment to develop and implement a framework on achieving the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At a vote on March 24, 2021, it was defeated with Liberal and Conservative Party MPs voting against.^[20][21]

In August 2020, Gazan introduced Motion 46 in the House of Commons of Canada, which would convert the Canada Emergency Response Benefit introduced by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic into a permanent basic income program.^[22] In 2021 she spoke in the House of Commons in support of UBI.^[23]

She presented a motion to the House of Commons to declare the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a Canada-wide emergency, which passed unanimously. The motion also called for the creation of a new system to send out alerts for missing people.^[24]

Electoral record

v t e 2025 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg Centre
** Preliminary results — Not yet official **
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Leah Gazan	13,524	39.48	–10.17
	Liberal	Rahul Walia	12,108	35.34	+6.39
	Conservative	Tom Bambrick	7,658	22.35	+9.55
	Green	Gary Gervais	389	1.14	–1.25
	People's	Donald Grant	367	1.07	–3.21
	Animal Protection	Debra Wall	213	0.62	±0.00
Total valid votes/expense limit
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			34,259	53.55
Eligible voters			63,978
	New Democratic notional hold		Swing		–8.28
Source: Elections Canada[25][26]

v t e 2021 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Leah Gazan	14,962	50.3	+9.1	$95,075.71
	Liberal	Paul Ong	8,446	28.4	-5.3	$34,450.58
	Conservative	Sabrina Brenot	3,818	12.8	-4.7	none listed
	People's	Bhavni Bhakoo	1,229	4.1	+2.6	$3,735.84
	Green	Andrew Brown	708	2.4	-2.8	$0.00
	Libertarian	Jamie Buhler	373	1.3	N/A	none listed
	Animal Protection	Debra Wall	213	0.7	N/A	$4,055.48
Total valid votes/expense limit			29,749	98.8	–	$101,566.38
Total rejected ballots			365	1.2
Turnout			30,114	52.2
Eligible voters			57,672
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+7.2
Source: Elections Canada[27]

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Leah Gazan	13,073	41.21	+13.2	$81,565.86
	Liberal	Robert-Falcon Ouellette	10,704	33.74	-20.8	$93,870.93
	Conservative	Ryan Dyck	5,561	17.53	+5.1	$16,427.27
	Green	Andrea Shalay	1,661	5.24	+1.1	none listed
	People's	Yogi Henderson	474	1.49	–	none listed
	Christian Heritage	Stephanie Hein	251	0.79	+0.1	none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			31,724	100.0
Total rejected ballots			274
Turnout			31,998	54.2
Eligible voters			59,012
	New Democratic gain from Liberal		Swing		+17.0
Source: Elections Canada[28][29]