PREMIER Gary Doer called Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen an inexperienced amateur and demanded he apologize and withdraw his threat to delay the provincial budget.
Doer was speaking out for the first time after having been in Washington, D.C. all week while his government was fending off accusations it withheld a cabinet briefing note on Crocus's financial troubles from the provincial auditor's investigation of Crocus.
The auditor's office reported Tuesday the briefing note was in the Crocus investigation files and had formed part of the audit.
Doer said McFadyen's allegation fell "like a house of cards" and said he is obviously willing to use politics to hold back the most important financial document in government.
McFadyen has threatened not to allow the government to introduce a budget this spring unless Doer fires Finance Minister Greg Selinger over the Crocus scandal.
Doer said that is an unacceptable threat.
"He's a totally inexperienced person," said Doer. "You don't threaten to hold up a budget that is important for one million people. This is amateur land."
Doer said when his party was in opposition it never held up a budget, despite a number of major concerns about government behaviour, including the sale of the Manitoba Telephone System and the vote rigging scandal.
"Even when they were caught vote rigging we still let through the budget," said Doer. "He's a total amateur. I've never seen anything like this."
McFadyen, however, implied he doesn't believe the briefing note was actually in the auditor's hands during the audit.
He noted it wasn't referenced in the report, nor did anyone from the auditor's office mention the briefing note when the report was discussed at a legislative committee.
"We're confident if (the auditor's office) had the document they would have disclosed it," said McFadyen.
"We've got conflicting scenarios here. We have the former auditor Jon Singleton, who I think is an extremely credible person, indicating on Monday he had no recollection of the document. And then we have the new auditor general Carol Bellringer, who didn't do the audit, saying we found it in the files. So this raises questions."
He said the only way to get to the bottom of the matter is to hold a public inquiry and said if he is proven wrong in that stage, he'll take responsibility then.
The Tories also launched a new radio attack ad against the NDP Thursday asking Manitobans if whether they should have been warned by the Doer government the Crocus fund was in trouble when the government learned of that in November 2000.
McFadyen said it's not an attack ad, it's a fact ad.
"We see it as an ad that tells the truth," he said. "If the government perceives it as an attack ad, or a negative ad, that's just a reflection that there are some very negative facts we're disclosing to the public. We think it's factually fair."
Doer said it is just the latest in a series of attack ads the Tories have aired in the last several months and said he wasn't going to respond.
University of Manitoba politics professor Kim Speers said there has been a lot of negativity in Manitoba politics recently, pointing out Doer attacked the Tories negatively in his speech at the NDP convention a month ago.
"I find negative politics to be the easy way in terms of campaigning," said Speers. "It is a lot easier to be negative rather than come forward with a sound policy agenda."
She said Canadians in general don't tolerate negative politics very well, but said there is a little more acceptance of it when the attacks are not personal but on specific issues.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
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