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Tories' action plan for rebuilding due

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 09/22/2012 7:58 AM | Comments: 0

Opposition Leader Brian Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives are days away from releasing a report that paves the way for the resurrection of the party.

Pallister said the report, compiled from suggestions from members across the province, will be the starting point of what the party will look like going into the next provincial election. It will be posted on the PC website as early as next week.

"I’m trying to build the PC party to be the kind of party that really and genuinely goes out and listens," Pallister said Friday. "We’re being open and transparent about it."

Pallister said about 400 written submissions have been gathered during the past month.
"We’ve asked for their views on how we can design a better political party to better serve the needs of not only members, but the people of Manitoba," he said.

"It is going to be a little contentious, but it’s about continuous improvement."
The Tories went into the 2011 campaign thinking they had a lock on power, but their hopes died election night when the NDP was returned to power for another four years.

The loss was the end for former leader Hugh McFadyen, who resigned over the poor performance.

Pallister also said the revamping of the party has nothing to do with the possibility of a new political party being formed.

Modelled on the success of the Saskatchewan Party, the Manitoba Party declares itself to be an alternative to the PCs and NDP.

"I guess I can’t on one hand say I want people to be engaged and involved in public policy and on the other hand be harsh toward those who wish to," he said. "I do think there is one emerging alternative to the NDP and that is our party."

Pallister has been on the job as PC leader since the end of July and was sworn in this week as Fort Whyte MLA. He’s also shuffled his caucus and has condemned an NDP initiative to come up with a more acceptable method for public financial support of all political parties.

The issue started four years ago when the NDP, under Gary Doer, created a taxpayer subsidy to help political parties deal with the financial hit from its earlier ban on corporate and union donations. Each registered party is allowed to apply annually for a government payment of $1.25 for each vote it received in the last general election, to a maximum of $250,000.

But the Tories labelled the subsidy a "vote tax" and refused to apply for their share. The NDP, backed into a corner, followed suit. The Liberals and Greens have accepted it.

Both the NDP and the Green Party of Manitoba have blasted Pallister for talking out of both sides of his mouth as the PCs already accept other statutory subsidies, including a 50 per cent rebate on election-campaign expenses — about $1 million after the last election.

"What we’re getting from the PCs is pure hypocrisy," Manitoba Green Leader James Beddome said.

Pallister argues there’s a massive difference between election expenses and accepting public money for a party’s operating costs.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

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