Niki Christina Ashton  MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Churchill
Incumbent
Assumed office  2008
Preceded by	Tina Keeper
Born	September 9, 1982 (1982-09-09) (age 27) Thompson, Manitoba
Political party	New Democratic Party
Profession	university lecturer, researcher

Niki Christina Ashton, MA (born September 9, 1982) is the New Democratic Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Churchill in Manitoba, Canada. She was first elected in the 2008 federal election.

A resident of Thompson, Manitoba and an instructor at University College of the North^[1], she is the daughter of Manitoba provincial NDP cabinet minister Steve Ashton.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Role in 2005-2006 Canadian federal election 3 Electoral record 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Niki Ashton was born in Thompson and attended École Riverside School and R.D. Parker Collegiate high school. She later attended the Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong. She has B.A in Global Political Economics from the University of Manitoba, and a M.A in International Relations from Carleton University.

Later, she was a coordinator and promoter of volunteering at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. At the event, she assisted the Chinese team.

She has studied human rights in Canada and was awarded the Ahmed Ali Hashi Human Rights Scholarship for her work.

She speaks Greek, French, English and Spanish. She has studied Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish, and is currently learning Cree.

[edit] Role in 2005-2006 Canadian federal election

In 2005, she defeated incumbent NDP Member of Parliament Bev Desjarlais for the New Democratic Party nomination due, in part, to the same-sex marriage issue after Desjarlais broke party ranks to vote against the Civil Marriage Act. Desjarlais subsequently quit the party and sat as an independent for the remainder of her term; she ran against Ashton as an independent in the election in Churchill in the 2006 Canadian federal election.^[2] Some of Ashton's major themes in her campaign were getting federal funding for the University College of the North, as well as getting a federal government northern development agreement.

Although the labour unions in Thompson endorsed Ashton,^[3] the NDP vote nevertheless split between Ashton and Desjarlais, and the riding was won by Liberal Party candidate Tina Keeper.^[4]

Ashton defeated Keeper in the 2008 election to regain the riding for the NDP.

[edit] Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democrat	Niki Ashton	8,735	47.4%
	Liberal	Tina Keeper	5,313	28.83%
	Conservative	Wally Daudrich	3,774	20.48%
	Green	Saara Harvie	606	3.29%
Total valid votes			18,428	100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout				%
	NDP gain from Liberal		Swing

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Tina Keeper	10,159	40.67%	+2.32%	$75,179
	New Democrat	Niki Ashton	7103	28.44%	-14.99%	$70,290
	Independent	Bev Desjarlais	4283	17.15%	-26.28%	$23,042
	Conservative	Nazir Ahmad	2886	11.55%	-3.57%	$23,875
	Green	Jeff Fountain	401	1.61%	-1.41%	$2,837
	Independent	Brad Bodnar	146	0.58%		$68.69
Total valid votes				100.00%
Total rejected ballots
Turnout			24978	55.53%
	Liberal gain from NDP		Swing	+8.7

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Niki Ashton
• Parliament of Canada biography