One wil be premier: Steve Ashton

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Steve Ashton (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

To truly understand what makes Steve Ashton tick, consider the fact that he spent summers as a young man hauling explosives underground in a northern Manitoba nickel mine.

Ashton is a politician of unwavering confidence and staunch ambition. And like the young man who ferried explosives in a deep and dark mine, he seems to do it all with a steady hand.

Certainly, his opponents in the NDP leadership have come to understand that Ashton's early-life experiences have forged a hard-as-nails approach to politics. In a horrendously short leadership campaign, Ashton has been the sole source of drama, shock and awe.

He has sold thousands of new memberships in just a few weeks, sparking allegations he used unethical tactics to produce instant members loyal to his leadership bid. He beat rival Andrew Swan so badly in a key battle for delegates in The Pas, the youthful Swan dropped out of the race.

The would-be premier walked a picket line with striking Manitoba Hydro workers, ignoring conventions that suggest premiers, and would-be premiers, need to take a more independent stance on public sector contract negotiations. He has refused to make deals to stand down his slates to allow icons of the party status as delegates. He even launched a Facebook page to protest what he believed to be a rigged delegate-selection meeting.

And yet, Ashton does a relatively convincing job of denying that he is overly aggressive.

"I don't know if we've run an aggressive campaign," he said over a plate of ham and eggs at an Osborne Village cafe. "I think we've run a strong campaign. I can tell you that it does feel like a boxing match. You win a round, you lose a round."

A boxing match indeed. Ashton's battle with Greg Selinger for the helm of the Manitoba NDP has evolved from a friendly sparring match to a full-on brawl. But if Ashton has a touch of the street fighter in him -- and there are many in the party who believe that -- he came by it honestly.

Ashton and his parents immigrated to Canada from England in 1967 after his father was laid off as a chemist at Gillette and he took a job setting up the environmental control department at Inco Ltd. in Thompson. After landing in Toronto, the whole family drove to northern Manitoba in a '65 Buick LeSabre, to begin a brave new life in a genuine frontier town.

Ashton's mother took a job at the local school board, where the staff were organized by the United Steelworkers. "I still like to tell people my mother was a Steelworker."

Growing up in Thompson, Ashton fed on a steady diet of mining, organized labour and politics. He got his first shot at dabbling in electoral politics at the University of Manitoba, where he studied economics and political science. He was elected president of the U of M Students Union in 1978.

But it wasn't until the 1980s when politics, mining and labour converged again and provided Ashton with the path he is still following today.

In 1981, Ashton was back in Thompson working at the mine to earn money to pursue a graduate degree, when the Steelworkers went on strike. In the middle of that tense standoff, Progressive Conservative premier Sterling Lyon called an election. At the tender age of 25, Ashton found himself the NDP candidate for Thompson, running against incumbent Tory and cabinet minister Ken MacMaster.

When the votes were counted, MacMaster was declared the winner by a slim margin. At a recount, however, Ashton prevailed by 72 votes.

When the final result was confirmed, Ashton said MacMaster came up and shook his hand. "He said, 'You know, I voted for you,'" he recalled. "I said, 'Why would you do that?' He said, 'I figured you'd make a better politician than a miner.'"

His career as an MLA and cabinet minister has covered a wide variety of experiences, from intergovernmental affairs (where he was the face of the province's flood-fighting efforts last spring) to water stewardship and conservation.

He has also become the party's northern czar, cementing the NDP's electoral dominance in what is now known as Orange Dog country.

Along with his reputation for being an articulate and effective cabinet minister, however, Ashton has been seen in caucus as a bit of a self-possessed lone wolf. It is not surprising, then, that in this leadership race, Ashton has very little caucus support and none from cabinet ministers.

"He's got a lot of brain power and he's a skilled politician," a senior party source said. "But Steve is out for Steve. He's not really part of the team."

This perception seems to run contrary to Ashton's campaign theme of inclusiveness. But Ashton doesn't blink when confronted by these criticisms, choosing instead to maintain that his head-on approach has been good for the NDP in the north, and it can be good for the party in the next election.

"Ambitious? I don't think that's a fair criticism," Ashton said. "If you want to be premier, by definition you're ambitious. But in any election, you have to give people a sense of who you are and what you are. It's particularly important in a leadership race to do that. I think I've done that."

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

Steve Ashton

Age: 53

Education: University of Manitoba (BA political science) and Lakehead University (MA economics).

Political experience: First elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1981. He has served as NDP house leader while in opposition. In government, he has filled a number of cabinet posts including Highways and Government Services, Conservation, Water Stewardship and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Greg Selinger

Age: 58

Education: University of Manitoba (BA social work), Queen's University (MA public administration) and London School of Economics (PhD).

Political experience: Elected city councillor in 1989. Ran unsuccessfully to be mayor of Winnipeg in 1992. Was elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1999. Has served as Manitoba's finance minister since then.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 11, 2009 A1