NDP Leadership race: Neck and neck at the wire

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/03/2015 (3941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba New Democrats today are selecting a party leader — and potentially a new premier — in a contest that is still too close to call.

Four months after a cabinet revolt, Premier Greg Selinger will learn today whether he still has the confidence of his party to continue governing the province.

He is being challenged by former cabinet ministers Steve Ashton and Theresa Oswald, the latter being a member of the so-called Gang of Five ministers who called for him to step down.

The leadership vote is occurring on the third day of the NDP’s annual convention in Winnipeg. On Saturday, delegates concluded the party’s business, passing resolutions and electing executive members at an event that was overshadowed by leadership politics.

Oswald supporters wore white T-shirts with her name imprinted on the front, while Selinger supporters sported orange scarves. Manitoba firefighters, wearing gold T-shirts, proclaimed their support for Ashton.

The leadership will almost certainly require a second ballot — as it is expected none of the three has sufficient support to win a majority in the first round of voting.

But which two will survive that first round is anybody’s guess.

Last night, the candidates welcomed delegates to hospitality suites for some last-minute cajoling and arm-twisting. Campaign officials bent reporters’ ears to explain why they felt their candidate would survive the first ballot and one of the other two candidates wouldn’t.

In a prelude to today’s vote, some of the roughly 1,200 delegates who had registered by late Saturday debated the value of the delegate system for electing a leader. Many said it hurt longtime members who could not obtain delegate status and was particularly restrictive for rural party members.

A majority of delegates decided to put off a decision until a later convention on whether to adopt a one-member-one-vote method for electing future party leaders. But the debate was not without some emotional and even heated exchanges.

A delegate from Arthur-Virden, in speaking against the delegate system, said: “My vote to me is very important and very private, and I don’t want to delegate it to someone else as if maybe they would vote as I would vote.

“We are not giving everybody that vote that we promised them,” he added. “We are giving one out of 10 the vote through delegation, and that’s unfortunate, and not only that, we are often giving a vote to someone who is maybe a member for 30 days or 31 days, and we are denying a vote to a member who has been active and engaged for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.”

He said because of that, longtime members have quit the party, a sentiment echoed by Winnipeg Coun. Ross Eadie. He argued against referring the resolutions to committee.

Eadie said the delegate system “disenfranchised” many party members who could not obtain delegate status to attend the leadership vote.

“It really upsets people when they contribute their lives, their passions, their drive to support the NDP,” Eadie said. “We are disallowing them from participating in the most essential, critical parts. I hate fighting against individual members to get on a slate. It is not good to pit member against member.”

However, Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck and several other delegates said it would be a mistake to decide the issue now during the heat of a leadership campaign.

“We’ve been going through a difficult time in our party, and it’s been challenging, and there’s been some lack of clarity, I think, on some rules. And we’ve worked hard to adjust that. I think there are some areas that need some attention and some work,” Rebeck said.

The NDP’s delegate system for choosing leaders has been widely criticized, within and outside the party, as undemocratic and concentrating too much power in the hands of organized labour.

NDP delegate Robert Mayer agreed with Rebeck, saying the party had to work out how one-member-one-vote would work with its affiliated unions.

“There is a bit of work that has to be done because we can’t just go straight to one-member-one-vote without recognizing that we have partners in this process,” Mayer said.

United Food and Commercial Workers union president Jeff Traeger agreed with Mayer and Rebeck on sending the resolutions to committee for study.

“There is no doubt that the last three months has been a perfect example of where we need to fix this process,” Traeger said. “The problem is trying to fix it when we’re at convention where there is a lot of emotion and a lot of people upset at what happened over the last three months is not the right time to make this decision.

“There are a lot of consequences to simply saying ‘Flip the switch, go one-member-one-vote,’ and we need to take some time to think about those.”

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

The endorsements

Backing Selinger:

• The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) executive, but some locals have said they will not support him
• United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 832
• Ovide Mercredi, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations
• Jim Silver, inner-city activist
• Muriel Smith, former MLA and cabinet minister
• Jerry Storie, former MLA for Flin Flon.
• Darlene Swiderski, Selkirk city councillor
• Rosann Wowchuk, former MLA and finance minister
• Don Yannick, reeve of the RM of Yellowhead

MLAs also backing Selinger:

• James Allum
• Peter Bjornson
• Sharon Blady
• Erna Braun
• Drew Caldwell
• Kevin Chief
• Deanne Crothers
• Greg Dewar
• Kerri Irvin-Ross
• Ron Kostyshyn
• Flor Marcelino
• Ted Marcelino
• Eric Robinson
• Mohinder Saran
• Matt Wiebe
• Melanie Wight

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Biidaajimowin | News from the Centre

Wednesdays

Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences.

Sign up for Biidaajimowin | News from the Centre

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Backing Oswald:

• IBEW
• Manitoba Young NDP
• Michael Balagus (former Doer/Selinger chief of staff)
• Becky Barrett, former MLA and cabinet minister
• Brandon city Couns. Jan Chaboyer and Lonnie Patterson
• Riva Harrison (former Doer press secretary)
• Anna Rothney (former adviser to Selinger)

MLAs also backing Oswald:

• Nancy Allan
• Jennifer Howard
• Ron Lemieux
• Erin Selby
• Stan Struthers
• Andrew Swan

Backing Ashton:

• United Fire Fighters
• United Steel Workers

MLAs also backing Ashton: