Selinger staying on as leader

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This article was published 29/10/2014 (4080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The NDP government could fall before Christmas, forcing a winter election.

That’s one scenario in front of Manitobans today, with Premier Greg Selinger saying he’ll stay on as leader of the provincial New Democrats despite calls to resign from at least five of his top cabinet ministers, who hope to save the party from defeat in the next election.

Selinger needs 29 votes in the 57-seat legislative assembly for his government to survive. The fall sitting of the legislature is expected to begin next month. Manitobans aren’t scheduled to go to the polls until April 2016.

With a rebellion within his caucus, does Selinger have enough votes to survive a non-confidence motion, which could occur within the first two weeks of December when MLAs vote to approve the government’s throne speech?

Selinger said he does have that support, but at the same time must deal with the dissident ministers who spoke out against him this week — or they could resign. Either way, continued internal feuding is unlikely to subside with his decision to remain at the helm.

Over the past two days, several senior cabinet ministers have urged the premier to consider his future as NDP leader in light of the party’s poor showing in opinion polls and the fumbling of last year’s PST increase.

They include Finance Minister Jennifer Howard, Municipal Affairs Minister Stan Struthers, Jobs and the Economy Minister Theresa Oswald, Justice Minister Andrew Swan and Health Minister Erin Selby.

“There’s been some folks that have recommended I take a serious look at my future role,” Selinger said Tuesday at a news conference, flanked by 15 supportive MLAs. “Some of them are cabinet ministers. I’ve had a conversation with those folks today and I said that we have to focus our energies on the priorities of Manitobans.

“So all options are on the table as we go forward, all options in terms of people’s commitment to wanting to work on that vision for Manitoba.”

Selinger wasn’t entirely specific on what those “options” might be, but admitted they include resignation or being shuffled out of cabinet.

“When you’re in these kinds of discussions, you have to stand back and say, ‘What is my purpose for being here?’ ” Selinger said. “And I say, our purpose is (to) be here to serve Manitobans and their priorities, and you have to have a laser focus on that. That’s where the discipline comes in.”

The five ministers were not immediately available late Tuesday to discuss their futures. Oswald, Howard and Swan are the top performers for the government, tasked with setting its job-creation and law-and-order agendas. Each would have known Selinger had no intention of stepping down and would call their bluff. Selinger said each now knows they must toe the party line.

“We all come here to serve Manitobans, and it’s a great privilege to do that, and we should never forget that and be distracted from that,” he said. “Any conversation related to other matters can be done in such a way that it does not hamper our ability to serve the best interest of Manitobans.”

Selinger also reaffirmed he will stand for re-election. The next election is scheduled for April 19, 2016 but could come as early as Oct. 6, 2015, depending on the timing of the next federal election. If the federal government calls for an election next fall, Manitobans would go to the polls the following April.

Selinger’s decision to stay could possibly be the best outcome for Opposition Leader Brian Pallister.

“We’ve discovered what we already knew,” he said moments after Selinger announced his decision. “That this was a government that would blame everyone for their problems… and now they’re blaming each other. It’s a blame-placing government and Manitobans are discovering that now.”

The internal push to unseat Selinger from the premier’s office has been gradual, picking up steam over the past two months and coming to a head last Wednesday with the Winnipeg mayoral election. Judy Wasylycia-Leis, a former NDP MLA and MP, was beaten soundly by mayor-elect Brian Bowman, a result many within NDP circles saw as a vote against the Selinger government.

Selinger on Thursday acknowledged last year’s PST hike was sprung on an unsuspecting public — and an unsuspecting caucus, say NDP sources.

As premier, Selinger said he wears the blame for the tax increase, but in the next breath he said it was necessary to recover from major flooding in 2011 and to boost the economy with more infrastructure spending.

“I do have regrets for the way it was rolled out, but I believe the decision was the right one,” he said. “We’ll be fully accountable for that and have been accountable for that.”

Earlier in the day, Swan called reporters to his office to say the movement against Selinger is about more than the PST hike. Health Minister Erin Selby shared her concerns on a radio station.

Swan said if Selinger stays in office, the ruling NDP risk seeing the next election turn into a referendum on Selinger’s leadership instead of focusing on which party has the best vision for the province.

“It’s pretty clear, on all the evidence, that there are a lot of Manitobans who are very angry at the premier and it’s pretty clear that that anger is getting in the way of us being able to talk about all the good things that we’ve, and frankly, that the premier has done,” Swan said.

He said it was not easy for senior party members to go public against Selinger. “This is not a typical place for us to be and it’s not a comfortable place. It’s not a comfortable thing for any of us to do.”

Oswald was less direct, but said the party’s poor position in the polls going into the last year of its mandate does not bode well for the NDP.

She added the NDP’s accomplishments since coming into office in 1999 was at risk of being torn apart by Pallister’s Conservatives should they form the next government.

“I believe he’ll remain having Manitobans’ best interests at heart in terms of whatever decisions he makes in the days ahead,” she said before the premier announced his decision to stay on the job. “I will respect those decisions.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca