Leaders come out swinging on eve of election call

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This article was published 14/03/2016 (3515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The leaders of three primary political parties accused each other of lying, fearmongering and harbouring secret agendas during the final debate before an election call expected as soon as Wednesday.

Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari, Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister and NDP Leader Greg Selinger spent just over an hour exchanging barbs during a Monday-morning CJOB/Global News debate that featured little in the way of new policy but plenty of accusations, including some involving the tone of each other’s accusations.

The debate repeated a pattern that has emerged consistently during the slow crawl to April’s provincial election: Selinger attempted to convince Manitobans the Liberals and Tories are threatening Manitoba’s economy with cuts or revenue losses, while Pallister and Bokhari pointed out 16 years of NDP governance has left the province with high taxes and growing deficits.

“An undue focus on cutting right now will only take us on a downward cycle. That’s the plan of the conservatives,” said Selinger, who repeated his claim, made often in recent months, that the Progressive Conservatives plan to decimate Manitoba’s public service.

Selinger also claimed the Liberals will bring in tax cuts that will deprive the province of much-needed revenue. This prompted Bokhari to accuse the sitting premier of outright lying about her party’s campaign — and Pallister for failing to elucidate his party’s financial plan.

Pallister, in turn, ridiculed the NDP’s proposed surtax on high-income earners as another example of the party’s inability to control expenses after it already expanded the goods and services covered by provincial sales tax and raised the PST outright.

“I don’t think anybody really believes this is a premier who’s even interested in achieving any sustainable management of money the taxpayers have given,” Pallister said.

Bokhari, who had mused about a high-income surtax of her own, also took on the NDP’s proposed measure, wondering how a high-end surtax would jibe with an NDP pledge to bring more Manitobans home from other provinces.

The debate only diverged from financial themes on a handful of occasions, such as when moderator Richard Cloutier asked each leader how much of a candidate’s past should be taken into consideration before they run for office.

Bokhari used the question to continue to criticize Selinger for backing her Fort Rouge riding opponent, Wab Kinew, who remains under fire for offensive tweets. Selinger continued to assert Kinew has grown and now makes a positive contribution to society.

Pallister, however, completely sidestepped the allegations against Colleen Mayer, the PC candidate in St. Vital, who has been accused of misusing public resources at home and during her campaign.

Pallister and Selinger sounded smooth, despite an almost complete reliance on scripted talking points. The Tory leader, whose party continues to en enjoy a lead in the polls, took very few chances. Selinger was more aggressive and made what may be prove to be a misstep when he said the economic misfortune in Prairie provinces to the west has helped bring young people back to Manitoba.

“We’re seeing people come back from Alberta and Saskatchewan as we speak because the commodities out there have gone down very low and job opportunities are disappearing very rapidly,” Selinger said.

This comment quickly drew national interest. “I wonder what fellow NDP (premier) Rachel Notley thinks of this line of reasoning,” Calgary Tory MP Michelle Rempel tweeted.

Bokhari, sounding flustered at times, struggled to answer a question about Manitoba Hydro’s future and could not make a concise closing statement. She attempted to delineate herself from the other leaders by suggesting both engage in fearmongering and attack ads, but then snarked at Pallister for briefly mentioning the web-communication platform Skype instead of Snapchat.

“Brian, I appreciate you talking about Skype, but in the 21st century, it’s Snapchat,” she said.

Asked a novel question as to whether they would support the idea of presumed consent for organ donations, none of the leaders answered in the affirmative.

While no new policy emerged, there were a few new catchphrases, with Bokhari repeatedly saying Manitoba “needs a new lens.” Selinger unwittingly paraphrased British metal band Judas Priest in an attempt to cast doubt on a Pallister promise to limit public-sector cuts: “If you believe that, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Manitobans go to the polls on April 19. Green party leader James Beddome was not invited to the debate.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca