A chance for Kinew to show his quality

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This article was published 15/04/2023 (922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

‘The leader of the Opposition pulled me in and said, ‘You piece of s—. How dare you politicize this f—ing event. What you did is f—ing wrong… I’m emotionally shaken by this. I wasn’t expecting that — intimidation attempts, insulting language and… when we left the handshake, there was a shove in the stomach.” — Manitoba Minister of Sport, Culture and Heritage Obby Khan

“I said, ‘You should not have said these partisan things.’ Khan comes back at me and he says, ‘You have no class’… At no time was there any swearing. At no time was there any name-calling. And the interaction was of words exchanged, albeit tensely, over a handshake.” — Manitoba Opposition Leader Wab Kinew

All of this happened on Thursday at a Manitoba legislature event on Turban Day, where a celebration was being held to commemorate Punjabi and Sikh cultures. There was a big NDP banner posted. That upset Culture and Heritage Minister Obby Khan.

He let the NDP Leader Wab Kinew know about it, and Kinew responded in a way that, according to Khan, left him shaken. Khan never indicated that he felt physically threatened, and how could he be? He’s a former CFL player who has taken thousands of hits from guys who make Kinew look more like a lightweight.

The reason for our gathering today is because, for several years, people have quietly and sometimes not-so-quietly asked: “Is Wab Kinew fit to be premier of Manitoba?” Kinew had a history with the law that included charges of domestic violence, which were dropped. But most of us think of that as ancient news from decades past. He has worked very hard to clean up his act and now leads a respectable life with a healthy marriage to a doctor.

It’s hard to say how much of Kinew’s ancient history contributed to the crushing his party took at the polls four years ago when the Pallister Conservatives took twice many seats as the NDP.

But that was a still a tad better than the NDP’s performance in the previous election, where the NDP premier of the day, Greg Selinger, took a whipping from the Pallister PCs, who won a historic 40 out of 57 seats. Most of the latest polling data show the Kinew NDP could do a similar demolition job on the PCs in October.

This is seen as Kinew’s election to lose, and so Thursday’s Kinew-Khan confrontation is a story with legs.

Winnipeg media have gone above and beyond giving him the benefit of all doubt, being uncritical of him for his performance as the opposition leader. Nobody wants to be accused of being too critical of a person who could make history in October, becoming Canada’s first provincial First Nations premier.

Eight years ago, I hosted my final local radio show in Winnipeg. It was a three-hour celebration of my life as a Winnipeg broadcaster. The only people I invited to join me were people I had an enormous amount of respect for.

Brian Pallister was not my cup of tea. He wasn’t invited. He felt slighted, called in, and took some cheap shots before wishing me good luck. I didn’t engage him, thanked him and said goodbye.

One of the people who was invited was Kevin Chief, an NDP MLA from North Winnipeg, and I told him on air that I would be very supportive of him becoming premier. That was, for what it’s worth, my vision of the future. I wanted Chief to be Manitoba’s first First Nations premier.

I don’t know anyone in this province that I feel so strongly about, who could look me in the eye, knowing the cold hard facts of life, and say that Wab Kinew is a Kevin Chief. Kinew doesn’t appear to have the temperament to be a good leader of our beloved province. Could it be any clearer that Pallister didn’t, either?

Neither of them is in the same league as Gary Doer, Gary Filmon, Ed Schreyer or the person who will always be my idea of the ultimate premier of Manitoba, Duff Roblin.

We have close to six months to make the big decision. As I said in my first column, I look forward to meeting with Kinew and I very much want the person who appears to be in the on-deck circle to persuade me there is far more to him than what he showed us three days ago in his Khanfrontation with history.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster. His column appears on Thursday and Saturday.