‘Abandoned’ former Tory leadership candidate Daudrich quits party

Longtime Progressive Conservative party board member and leadership candidate Wally Daudrich is leaving the Tories and looking for a new political home.

“I am by my nature a very loyal person and I have now concluded that while I would never quit the conservative movement, the PC party has completely abandoned me and all conservatives like me,” Daudrich said in a letter sent Saturday to the party leadership obtained by the Free Press.

He was informed by the party earlier this month that he would not be allowed to seek the nomination in Turtle Mountain, where PC incumbent Doyle Piwniuk has decided not to seek re-election in the next provincial vote, which must take place on or before Oct. 5, 2027.

Daudrich was accused by the party executive of violating its constitution and making “repeated disparaging comments regarding current and former Progressive Conservative MLAs.”

Daudrich said Monday that the decision to disallow his nomination was made eight days before the vote and after it became clear he’d sold four times as many party memberships as his only rival, Mark Custance, a rural councillor in the Municipality of Two Borders.

“I just finished putting in six months of hard labour into Turtle Mountain, and I sold hundreds of memberships. And that was part of the reason why I left,” said Daudrich, the Churchill lodge owner who also owns a home near the constituency where he sought the PC nod.

In an interview, Daudrich said he was able to contact many of those he sold PC memberships to and offered them a refund out of his own pocket.

“All of them said, ‘Save your money and run as an independent,’” he said. “That’s not to say that’s what I’m doing, but that’s what they said.

“Ultimately my dream is to have a legitimate conservative candidate in each riding.”

He said he wants to see party leaders who serve their members “rather than the autocrats that we presently have in the (legislature).”

Daudrich said that until now, he was a proud member of the Manitoba PCs, and that he’s worked with every leader since former premier Gary Filmon by recruiting candidates, raising money and organizing in northern Manitoba.

Political observers have said Daudrich’s socially conservative views appeal more to the rural base of the party and less so to the urban electorate in vote-rich Winnipeg targeted under current PC Leader Obby Khan.

He received more votes in the PC leadership race last year than Khan, but lost because the ballots were weighted by constituency.

Khan, who was not made available for an interview Monday, said in a prepared statement that “Progressive Conservatives have been working hard to provide Manitobans with real solutions and a pragmatic vision for the future of our province.”

“We acknowledge and respect that Wally Daudrich has a differing outlook on conservatism in Manitoba. All healthy political landscapes have room for differences. We welcome any Manitoban to put forward their vision for our province,” Khan said in the statement.

Daudrich, who purchased the former Kennedy Street PC headquarters beside the legislature for his tourism business, said the party has moved to the left, with no room for small-c conservatives like him.

“They’ve created a new liberal party, and I guess I am now politically homeless, in my cardboard boxes and shopping cart.”

“They’ve created a new liberal party, and I guess I am now politically homeless — in my cardboard boxes and shopping cart,” he said.

During last year’s leadership race, Daudrich infamously quipped that he’d solve Winnipeg’s homelessness crisis by letting polar bears loose in the city.

“We have a homeless crisis here in Winnipeg,” Daudrich told supporters in a video posted on social media. “I always say where I come from in Churchill, we don’t have any homeless people. Anybody take a guess why? When there are serious repercussions for a bad lifestyle, people smarten up very quickly. So my plan is to import 10 polar bears and let them go in front of the (Manitoba legislature).”

His plan now is to find a home for like-minded conservatives.

“We do need a new conservative movement because the PC party has abrogated that responsibility.”

“I’m going to confer with Manitobans who supported me for the last year to know what they’re thinking,” he said, adding he met several months ago for coffee with Keystone party leader Kevin Friesen and they talked about their similar views on the role of government.

The right-leaning populist party with rural roots tried to pick up disaffected PC votes in the 2023 provincial election but wasn’t successful.

“I’m not against co-operating with them, but we’ll see as something new coalesces. I’m sure that you’ll hear more about that,” Daudrich said.

“We do need a new conservative movement because the PC party has abrogated that responsibility. So it’s not just about me, and I don’t need to be a leader of this new movement, but I will definitely be working hard to be a part of it.

“The goal is to get good, principled, servant-leadership-style-people that will take the reins of government away from the ineffectual, self-absorbed leadership that we see on both sides in the (legislature) right now.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca