Tory leadership hopefuls to square off at Wednesday debate

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This article was published 18/03/2025 (185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The two men vying to lead the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba will face off Wednesday night at a debate in Winnipeg.

Wally Daudrich, a lodge owner from Churchill, and Obby Khan, the MLA for Fort Whyte and a former cabinet minister, are to go head-to-head at the Caboto Centre at 7 p.m.

The winner, to be announced April 26, will replace Heather Stefanson. She resigned after the PCs lost the 2023 election to Wab Kinew and the NDP who formed a majority government. The PC caucus chose Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko to serve as interim leader.

Daudrich is a longtime PC party board member. Khan was first elected in a 2022 byelection after former premier Brian Pallister resigned his Fort Whyte seat.

The last time Daudrich and Khan took part in a leadership debate was in Brandon on Feb. 20.

Khan, an offensive lineman when he played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, identified himself as a “big tent” conservative who could win back swing voters in suburban Winnipeg who voted NDP in 2023.

He demanded Daudrich apologize for joking that Winnipeg could solve its homeless crisis by setting polar bears loose downtown.

Instead of an apology, Daudrich said he sometimes uses humour to make a point, and that Churchill’s mayor and council do not tolerate homelessness.

Daudrich has said he wants the party to focus less on being “progressive” and more on its conservative base. He said the PCs are at risk of breaking up if the party doesn’t return to its roots.

The two hopefuls made headlines recently over the search of the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of serial killer victims Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris. In the 2023 election, the PCs campaigned against conducting a search, with the slogan “stand firm.”

After the NDP government launched a search in December and human remains were found in late February, PC interim leader Ewasko apologized for refusing to search the landfill when the PCs were in government.

Since then, Daudrich has said he supported a search but would’ve sought private donations to fund it. Khan has refused to say if it was a mistake for the party to campaign against it.

On Monday, the province announced the remains of Myran had been identified. On March 7, Harris’s remains had been identified.

Wednesday’s debate is open to current party PC members who RSVP debates@pcmanitoba.com, the party said.

The event will be available to watch on pcmanitoba.com.

The PCs will announce the next leader of their party on April 26. The deadline for receipt of mail-in and drop-off ballots is April 22.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca