Maybe it’s time for a female premier

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2014 (3994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Greg Selinger may have a problem with women.

The so-called Gang of Five, calling for the resignation of Selinger, is made up of three strong women, Jennifer Howard, Theresa Oswald and Erin Selby. They are joined, of course, by Andrew Swan and Stan Struthers, but make no mistake, it’s the women who were running the show, with Oswald firmly in control.

Last week, they made it clear Selinger was a weak premier and they called for him to resign. Their concerns were echoed by party executives Becky Barrett and Wayne Copeland along with Flin Flon backbencher Clarence Pettersen, all bent on seeing Selinger resign. On Monday the Gang of Five themselves resigned, en masse. In their news conference, they stated they could no longer function as cabinet ministers.

Selinger was forced to shuffle his cabinet, and the end result leaves the percentage of women in cabinet at 33 per cent, down from 36 per cent. More importantly, the power of women in cabinet is diminished. Jennifer Howard held an important position as finance minister. She replaced Stan Struthers, who replaced Rosann Wowchuk, Manitoba’s first female finance minister. With the new shuffle, that important position is now given to Greg Dewar, a backbencher for nearly 25 years, who finally got called up to the A-team. The remaining  women in cabinet hardly hold high-profile portfolios, although Kerri Irvin-Ross is to be given credit for taking on a huge workload in the shuffle. Irvin-Ross is now responsible for not only the Family Services Department, but also the Housing Department. This at a time when there are all manner of questions arising regarding the care of children, particularly aboriginal children in Manitoba. Homelessness in Canada remains in a crisis.

In many ways, this revolt evokes memories of a palace coup witnessed on the other side of the floor — the Conservatives under Stuart Murray in 2005. At that time, women also played a key role in taking down Murray. Bonnie Mitchelson, Mavis Taillieu, Myrna Driedger and Leanne Rowat were dubbed members of the committee and described at the time as a shadowy cabal by columnist Dan Lett in the Free Press.

At issue in 2005 was Murray’s falling fortunes in the polls. Taillieu wrote the only way the party could win an election would be to get a new leader. At that time, the party was standing at 34 per cent of the popular vote.

Murray resigned, and a new leader was put in place. Surprisingly, not one of the women in the committee threw their hat into the ring. Instead, eventual winner Hugh McFadyen faced off against Ron Schuler and Ken Waddell.

In this latest dust-up, the issue is also leadership and the ability to win in the next election.

The NDP are now at 30 per cent, according to Probe research, even lower than the Conservatives when Murray got the hook.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise it’s women who are at the centre of this coup. After all, the Manitoba NDP has always been seen as a front-runner in ensuring women have been elected and promoted to cabinet. When Gary Doer won government in 1999, more than one-third of his cabinet was made up of women. Selinger improved that record to 37 per cent. And for women in this province, the NDP has been seen as the party that has been most progressive in terms of policy, introducing domestic-violence and violence-against-women programs, responding to the gendered implications of health-care policy with the implementation of gender-based analysis in Manitoba Health and the creation of programs for healthy babies and families.

Why is it so few have taken that next step and run for leadership? Indeed, the last time a woman ran for NDP leader was 1988, when Maureen Hemphill lost to Gary Doer.

Well, if a woman from the Gang of Five is actually considering a leadership bid, she may want to be cognizant of the pitfalls ahead. In 2013, Canada had a record number of female premiers. B.C., Alberta, Nunavut, Ontario, Newfoundland and Quebec had female leaders of government. And it did not end well. Only two are left standing — Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne and B.C.’s Christy Clark. And here’s a sober thought, no female premier has ever been elected in succession. They’ve all been one-hit wonders.

It is doubtful Selinger will be able to rebound from this. At this point, to ignore the detractors and simply soldier on seems delusional, particularly with a fairly green cabinet, which now has to navigate the rough terrain of a fragile economy and ongoing issues of federal/provincial responsibilities.

Perhaps it’s time to let a woman take over.

Shannon Sampert is the Free Press perspectives and politics editor.

shannon.sampert@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulySigh