Both sides refuse to blink

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This article was published 30/10/2014 (4077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FURTHER pressure mounted on Premier Greg Selinger to resign Wednesday, with a second senior NDP strategist urging him to step down a day after he stood his ground and vowed to stay on as leader of the NDP government.

Darlene Dziewit, a party member since the mid-1970s and a former president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, praised the five cabinet ministers who called for his resignation this week.

“I think the premier needs to listen to what the people of Manitoba are saying,” Dziewit said. “We have a crisis here, in that I don’t believe that the people of Manitoba trust our leadership anymore.”

Dziewit is the second member of the party’s provincial executive to call on Selinger to resign as leader after Becky Barrett, a former NDP cabinet minister, did so Monday.

Barrett stuck to her guns after Selinger vowed Tuesday to remain in office and announced his intention to lead the party into the next election, likely to take place in April 2016.

“I think the pressure has to be kept on, and I think the premier has to be reminded daily that there are people who are very concerned,” Barrett said Wednesday.

Both women said the party risks annihilation in the next election unless there is a leadership change.

Dziewit was in Nova Scotia last fall when Darrell Dexter’s NDP government was turfed and was relegated to third-party status with just seven seats.

“It feels the same here as it did in Nova Scotia,” she said, noting there, too, people were unhappy with the premier and no longer trusted him.

For Selinger Wednesday, it was back to business the day after he faced down his critics and said he would remain in the premier’s chair.