Conservatives hunger for ‘possibility of government’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2009 (5879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA Conservatives are on high alert — preparing for an election they feel could come as soon as next spring — because of Gary Doer’s exit from politics.

Leader Hugh McFadyen said Monday the Conservatives will speed up preparation of a policy platform that was to be approved at a special party policy convention in October 2010.

The Tories will fast-track debate on such issues as crime, health care, the economy and the province’s fiscal situation in what promises to be a crammed agenda at their annual general meeting in November in Winnipeg.

McFadyen told reporters following a special PC caucus meeting Monday that the stakes are high for his party and for himself personally in the next election, which legislation has fixed as occurring on Oct. 4, 2011 — but which can be called before then.

“Part of the reason for the (special caucus) meeting today was just to impress on everybody that we have to start to prepare ourselves for the possibility of government,” McFadyen told reporters outside the meeting. The NDP holds a majority of seats, with 36, and there are two Liberal members in the legislature.

McFadyen said there are political risks if the NDP “violate the spirit” of the election law by calling an earlier election.

But the government may have an incentive to go to the people before the fall of 2011, he argued, because of a potentially worsening fiscal situation and the prospect of a reduction in transfer payments from the federal government.

At the same time crime “is getting worse rather than better,” McFadyen said, and the inquiry into Brian Sinclair’s death in a Winnipeg hospital emergency waiting room looms.

“A new NDP leader may very well have a strong incentive to try to call a quick election before all the bad news in these areas becomes public. And that means we obviously need to be ready for that scenario,” the Conservative leader said.

The legislature is to resume sitting Sept. 14 and adjourn on Oct. 8. As the Tories see it, the NDP may not recall MLAs again until the new year. The legislature would reconvene in early spring with a throne speech, followed by the budget and an election called for April or May.

McFadyen said the potential earlier timeline for a provincial vote adds urgency to the need to resolve the “NDP election finance scandal” and Election Manitoba’s role “in helping to cover it up.”

He was referring to a dispute arising from the 1999 election campaign in which the NDP counted free union workers as expenses instead of donations in kind. After a three-year investigation by Elections Manitoba, the party was forced to repay $76,000 in public subsidies.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca