Adrien Sala (born January 18, 1980) is a Canadian politician who has been the Minister of Finance for Manitoba since October 18, 2023. Sala is from Winnipeg, Manitoba and was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in the 2019 Manitoba general election. He represents the electoral district of St. James as a member of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba.
cbc.caEarly life and career
Adrien Sala was born in Thompson, Manitoba. He graduated from College Jeanne-Sauve in south Winnipeg and went on to study business at the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, where he completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 2003. After graduating, he began his career working with youth, serving non-profit organizations in Winnipeg's West Broadway community, and would later go on to leadership roles with community programs serving underhoused and gang-involved youth in the West Broadway neighbourhood. During his time managing a community jobs program supporting underhoused youth, he returned to the University of Manitoba, where he completed a Master's of Science (MSc) degree focused on examining the ways homeless and underhoused youth were using information communication technologies to access the resources and supports they needed.
Sala later began working as a provincial civil servant with the Department of Housing and Community Development, where he worked in support of the delivery of social and affordable housing programming. In 2016, he took on a role within the financial services sector, eventually becoming the director of strategy and operations for Assiniboine Credit Union, one of the largest community-owned financial institutions in Manitoba. During this time, he studied project management at the University of Winnipeg. He became accredited as a Project Management Professional (PMP). Prior to running for office, Adrien also served as a board member with the John Howard Society of Manitoba, as well as with the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development.
Sala is also a songwriter who released two solo albums, High Water Everywhere (2006) and Diamond in the Mind (2009) on the Dollartone Records label. He often performed at Winnipeg's well known Times Changed High and Lonesome Club. Sala later recorded two albums with Winnipeg folk group Jackpine, Brand New Good Old Days (2009) and Cabbage (2010).3
Electoral record
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Adrien Sala | 5,448 | 64.82 | +17.56 | $25,571.43 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Tim Diack | 2,326 | 27.67 | -5.16 | $17,274.06 | |||
| Liberal | Randell Cacayuran | 631 | 7.51 | -2.88 | $0.00 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 8,405 | 99.55 | – | $60,907.00 | ||||
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 38 | 0.45 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 8,443 | 54.68 | -0.99 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 15,442 | |||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | +11.36 | ||||||
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Adrien Sala | 4,002 | 47.25 | +12.3 | $20,052.47 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Michelle Richards | 2,781 | 32.84 | -6.1 | $45,848.85 | |||
| Liberal | Bernd Hohne | 880 | 10.39 | -2.5 | $3,102.61 | |||
| Green | Jeff Buhse | 806 | 9.52 | -0.6 | $939.40 | |||
| Total valid votes | 8,469 | – | – | |||||
| Rejected | 41 | – | ||||||
| Eligible voters / turnout | 15,288 | 55.40% | -5.91% | |||||
| New Democratic gain from Progressive Conservative | Swing | +9.2 | ||||||
References
"Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and New Government Sworn In". Government of Manitoba. October 18, 2023. https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=60457&posted=2023-10-18 ↩
Bryce Hoye, "Meet the rookies: Manitobans elect 13 first-time MLAs". CBC News Manitoba, September 11, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-election-2019-new-mlas-1.5275960 ↩
"JACKPINE". uniter.ca. Retrieved 2023-10-16. https://uniter.ca/view/jackpine ↩