Redefining old haunts

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/05/2016 (3424 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You could call it irony. Or, you could see it as a bit of poetic political justice.

On the morning of Tuesday, May 3, premier-designate Brian Pallister and his new Progressive Conservative cabinet will be sworn into their new roles, an act of tradition that more or less signals the official commencement of a new government. More significantly, the event will be held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The CMHR has become a preferred location for events that crave the buzz and excitement of one of the most interesting public buildings anywhere in the world. For the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, however, the museum is the source of particularly bittersweet memories. Specifically, memories from an April nine years ago when the Tories suffered one of their most humiliating moments in opposition.

It was back in 2007, in a tent on a vacant lot that would become the CMHR, that then-Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen attended a ground-breaking event featuring prime minister Stephen Harper and premier Gary Doer. It was a momentous occasion, the culmination of more than a decade of work by the Asper family to establish a world-class public museum in Winnipeg. It was the first federal museum in more than 40 years, and the first national museum ever built outside Ottawa.

The ground breaking celebrated both the largesse of the Harper government, which agreed to contribute $100 million to capital costs and regular operating funding, and the sheer political determination of Doer’s NDP government, which spent a lot of political capital to convince a Tory administration in Ottawa to pony money for a project conceived by one of the country’s most iconic Liberals.

So, it was not surprising that for the purposes of this event, Tories like McFadyen applauded Doer for his work in securing the museum deal. In a rare unguarded moment, Harper had even referred to the Manitoba premier as “Gary,” while thanking him for working behind the scenes to get the deal done. When the dignitaries in attendance rose at one point to give Doer a standing ovation, McFadyen rose as well. It was the right thing to do for any politician with a passing familiarity to the high road.

Unfortunately, that warm and fuzzy, all-party, bipartisan moment in time was betrayed but a few hours later when — with Harper’s plane still in Manitoba airspace — Doer asked Lt. Gov. John Harvard to dissolve the legislature and call an election. By evening, Doer was already in full re-election mode, the image of his political nemesis giving him a standing ovation still fresh in his mind.

Doer would go on to trounce McFadyen’s Tories in the 2007 election. Few Tories forgot the mischief in how and when Doer called the election.

That is what makes the events of this week so special and intriguing. For it is this week, Pallister returns to what is more or less the scene of that political crime to see cabinet and government officially launched.

There will be lots of irony to go around. For example, when Pallister gets a standing ovation at this event, it will be the first time a Manitoba Tory has been so honoured at the building that Gary Doer helped build. In fact, it should be a very sweet moment for all Tories — an opportunity to celebrate their return to government in a building that has haunted the Tories for a generation.

More than that, it is part of the natural evolution of political history whenever there is a change in government.

There is no doubt that the museum is an important part of the NDP legacy. There are still naysayers, of course, but the CMHR has certainly fulfilled many of its goals and once it sorts out a nagging dispute with the city over property taxes, should be financially stable for some time to come.

In practical terms, however, the event at the museum reminds us that legacies are not always top of mind for voters. Moving the cabinet ceremony to the museum is what a conquering government does to a vanquished political foe. Doer may have built it, but Pallister is putting his mark on the museum in his first official day as premier.

It’s also an opportunity to shake off some of the hyperbole from the election and establish a new context for the Pallister government.

The NDP worked diligently during the recent campaign to paint Pallister as a man with extreme views on human rights issues like homosexuality and same-sex marriage. It was an uncomfortable moment for the Tories, given that the ammunition being used by the NDP came from comments Pallister made in the House of Commons when he was a MP. A ceremony at the CMHR is certainly one way to signal that Pallister the premier has evolved some.

In political and practical terms, there is a lot of intelligent thought behind the decision to swear in the cabinet at the CMHR. Intelligent enough that it should be a very long time before another NDP leader receives a standing ovation in that museum.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca