River East was a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was officially created by redistribution in 1979, and formally existed since the provincial election of 1981 until 2019.
The riding was located on the northeast corner of the City of Winnipeg, bordered by the Red River to the west, the city limit, by Springfield to the north and east, and by the riding of Rossmere to the south.
It was replaced for the 2019 election by the new Kildonan-River East district.
River East was an affluent district with an average income of $62,534 and an unemployment rate of 5.60% in 1999. It also had a large immigrant population, at 17% of the total population. Twelve per cent of River East's residents listed German as their ethnic origin, while a further 9% listed Ukrainian. The riding's total population in 1996 was 19,840.
River East was the only riding in the northern part of Winnipeg to be represented by a Progressive Conservative up until the 2016 general election. Bonnie Mitchelson was the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the area from 1986 to 2016, and was re-elected five times. Bonnie Mitchelson announced her retirement in October, 2014,[1] and did not seek re-election in the 2016 general election. The seat was won by Cathy Cox, who held it for the Progressive Conservatives while defeating NDP challenger Jody Gillis. Once considered safe for the Progressive Conservatives, the seat became extremely marginal, with Mitchelson being re-elected in the 2007 provincial election by only 52 votes over the New Democrat candidate. Since then, the PC majorities have increased in 2011 and 2016.
Manitoba electoral district
