Niki Ashton - Career

Career

In 2005, she defeated incumbent New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Bev Desjarlais for the NDP 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 candidate in the election in the Churchill riding in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Ashton's major themes in her campaign included 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, the NDP vote nevertheless split between Ashton and Desjarlais, and the riding was won by Liberal Party candidate Tina Keeper.

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

In 2011 Ashton received the support of American documentary film maker Michael Moore in her fight to prevent the closing of Brazilian mining company Vale's smelter and refinery in Thompson, Manitoba. Vale, which owned the refinery after it took over Canadian company Inco, had earlier received a $1 billion unsecured loan from the Harper Government, and under the Investment Canada Act signed a contractual agreement with the federal government. A media investigation found that Vale broke this agreement, but as of May 2011 the government has yet to file punitive action against Vale.

On November 7, 2011, in Montreal, Niki Ashton launched her campaign as the ninth person to join the NDP leadership race. She placed seventh with 5.7% of the vote at the March 24, 2012 leadership election and was eliminated on the first ballot.

Ashton said that a retreat for the NDP party is a chance for the party to regroup and plan its agenda for the fall, including a focus on issues such as environmental regulations and fighting a private members' bill dealing with abortion.