Stan Struthers, one of five rebel cabinet ministers, will not seek re-election

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This article was published 13/05/2015 (4148 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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A former cabinet minister who rebelled against Premier Greg Selinger’s leadership is leaving political life.

Stan Struthers, the longtime NDP MLA for Dauphin, said Tuesday he will not seek re-election in April 2016.

News of Struther’s departure was confirmed Wednesday by Selinger.

“It’s a tough job to begin with, being an MLA no matter what side of the house you’re sitting on,” Struthers said. “I put 11 years in in cabinet and I put 21 years, which makes me the longest-serving MLA in the history of Dauphin. I’ve earned every one of these grey hairs.”

Struthers, one of five rebel cabinet ministers who quit Selinger’s inner circle last November over the premier’s leadership, has represented the constituency of Dauphin since 1995, winning five elections.

He spent more than a decade in cabinet before his resignation last fall. Jennifer Howard, Andrew Swan, Erin Selby and Theresa Oswald also resigned from cabinet at that time. Oswald came close to defeating Selinger for the leadership at the NDP’s annual convention in March.

Struthers said he made the decision after discussing it with his wife Michelle and son Alex, 13.

“The whole leadership question has been tough on a lot of people, but I did not let that seep into the decision making that governs my family and I,” Struthers said. “There’s no question I was disappointed with the result of the leadership contest. I had wished at the time that there had been a different outcome, but it is what it is.

“This is politics. A lot of strange things happen in politics.”

He added he does not know what he will do once he is no longer an MLA, although at age 55 he is eligible to collect an MLA’s pension.

“I don’t want to sit around the house and do nothing,” he said, adding he has almost a year to look for a new career. He will sit as MLA until the April 19, 2016, election.

“That gives me a better part of a year to get my name out, look around, see what’s out there. I’ll just get into mischief if I’m left to do very little. I want to be out and active and contributing.”

Outside the house, Selinger thanked Struthers for his years of public service.

The premier also downplayed a suggestion there was a sense of relief one of the rebel ministers was not running again.

“I think it’s a decision he made with his family and that has to be respected,” Selinger said. “I know that he’ll have successful next career if he wants to pursue that in any area that he wants to pursue it in.”

Struthers is the third NDP MLA to announce his retirement in the last few weeks, joining Assiniboia MLA Jim Rondeau and Gimli MLA Peter Bjornson.

The Progressive Conservatives are seeing two MLAs not seek re-election. Agassiz MLA Stu Briese and Riding Mountain MLA Leanne Rowat have already said they are not running again. Struthers held several cabinet posts over the years, including Conservation, Agriculture and Municipal Government. He was the minister of finance when the government decided to increase the provincial sales tax by one percentage point in 2013.

Of the five rebel ministers, Swan and Howard have been nominated to run in next April’s general election, while Oswald and Selby have yet to announce whether they will seek re-election.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca