Question period opens with hostile welcome to Pallister

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2016 (3433 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister got a rude reception to his first Question Period Tuesday afternoon.

“This premier has proven to be a polarizing force, failing to see the diversity of Manitoba,” declared interim NDP leader Flor Marcelino.

Marcelino told the legislature: “We saw an exclusionary throne speech that left out so many Manitobans,” then asked Pallister why he chose that path.

Pallister said Manitobans have shown “astonishing support” for worthy causes, and told Marcelino, “That’s the kind of government I plan on leading.”

Marcelino noted that she hadn’t really heard an answer.

Said Pallister: “Diversity is not something we use as a political weapon.”

He later told reporters, “It is more important to me that the attitude of inclusion is present.”

And they’re off, day one of four years.

It was a fairly civil day, as these things go — a little heckling, a little government gloating, congratulations galore for being elected all around, nothing requiring Speaker Myrna Driedger to stage an intervention.

The NDP spread its questions around among close to half the caucus, picking on just as many Tory cabinet ministers, without making an appreciable dent in the Conservatives’ confidence.

For their part, the Tories only occasionally responded with what a reasonable person could describe as an answer to the question posed, and offered very little substance of their plans.

Marcelino accused Pallister of loading the throne speech with code words for austerity and privatization, to which Pallister retorted that the NDP left office with 35 per cent of the health care system delivered privately. Said the premier: “We are less concerned with ideology, and more concerned with better results.”

To a direct question about any plans to privatize Manitoba Hydro, Pallister had a simple “No.” But when Marcelino threw MPI into the mix, Pallister got more wordy without really answering: “What we do not plan to do is politicize Manitoba Hydro or MPI.”

And so it went.

Wab Kinew (NDP-Fort Rouge) pointed to the child of a same-sex family allegedly being bullied in a Steinbach school, and advocated sexual identity becoming part of the human rights curriculum. Education Minister Ian Wishart countered that no complaints about Hanover School Division’s handling of the situation have come to his desk, and said it’s a local matter until and unless someone complains to him.

Matt Wiebe (NDP-Concordia) took a similar run at sexual identity issues, specifically the right of LGBTQ people to safe and accessible health care, and Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said everyone in Manitoba deserves quality health care.

Citing the May 31 provincial budget and its arrival so early after Pallister’s party took office, James Allum (NDP-Fort Garry-Riverview) accused Finance Minister Cameron Friesen of ignoring Manitoba’s long and proud tradition of public consultation on the budget. 

“He hasn’t talked to anyone. He’s baking an econmomic pie, and he doesn’t have the recipe,” Allum said with a ‘j’accuse’ air.

Consultation? That would have been the campaign leading up to the April 19 election, said the minister.

“It has been a robust process we have taken…largely through a general election. We have been given a compelling mandate,” said Friesen.

Cue a considerable outbreak of gloating from the PC benches.

It resumes at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, with the distinct possibility that Friesen’s update at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on the state of the province’s books may draw some attention.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca