‘It’ll be up to Obby’: defeated PC leadership candidate wants to run in byelection

After losing the Progressive Conservative leadership race — but winning the popular vote — Wally Daudrich says he wants to stay in the party and run for a seat in the legislature.

After the dust settled from Saturday’s result that saw Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan win with just 50.4 per cent of the points to Daudrich’s 49.6, the socially conservative lodge owner from Churchill said he was sticking with the Tories.

“I’m a loyal PC member,” Daudrich said in an interview Wednesday. “I was asked if I would be staying with the party and I said ‘yes’ and that’s what I plan to do.”

Daudrich shook hands with Khan after the winner was announced at a downtown Winnipeg hotel but left without making a speech or speaking to reporters. At the time, his campaign manager told the Free Press Daudrich wasn’t sure if he would continue to seek a vacant PC seat in the legislature. Disaffected PCs who formed the right-leaning Keystone Party of Manitoba urged the popular Daudrich and his supporters to join them.

Even though Daudrich received 53 more ballots than Khan, the former Blue Bomber offensive lineman was named the winner under the new PC leadership election point system where votes were weighted based on constituency.

“I went into it knowing the rules,” Daudrich said Wednesday, acknowledging Khan won. “I understand that I got more votes. I don’t have to say I like the rules. I was against the implementation of them. But those are the rules and that’s playing it the sportsmanlike way.”

The hotelier said he was not interested in splitting from the PC party, noting the Keystone party and People’s Party of Canada have stuck to their principles but haven’t had any electoral success.

“If we’re three or four parts of a conservative movement, we won’t form government. But if we are one single unified force, we represent the people that are a part of that unified force, we represent them accurately,” Daudrich said.

“I had announced I wanted to run in Spruce Woods and, if Obby wants me to run in Spruce Woods, then it’ll be up to Obby.”

The southwestern Manitoba seat in the legislature was vacated in March by PC MLA Grant Jackson, who quit and successfully ran for the federal Conservatives in Brandon-Souris.

“I had announced I wanted to run in Spruce Woods and, if Obby wants me to run in Spruce Woods, then it’ll be up to Obby.”–Wally Daudrich

“I do want to run and I’d like (Khan’s) good word to allow me to run and to stand as the candidate,” Daudrich said.

Spruce Woods PC party members supported Daudrich over Khan in the leadership race, awarding him 56.3 points to Khan’s 43.7.

“I think we have good support there. And I know I would carry the name proudly, the PC brand.”

Asked if Khan would approve Daudrich running for the PCs, in a byelection that must be called by Sept. 24, the new leader issued a statement: “Anyone interested in seeking the nomination in Spruce Woods should submit their application to the PC Party of Manitoba.”

It would be “dangerous” for Khan not to back Daudrich in Spruce Woods, where a majority voted in favour of him to be leader, one political expert said.

“I think Obby would absolutely have to respect those wishes because if he didn’t, he’d just be sending a huge flag to that wing of the party membership, the more conservative wing that supported Daudrich, that ‘You are not welcome here and your ideas are not welcome here,’ which is the opposite of trying to build a big tent party,” Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders said.

“As a honest broker and as a loyal PC party guy, I want to help him become the next premier.”–Wally Daudrich

Khan has repeatedly said he wants a “big tent” party that welcomes a range of ideas and opinions, including those of Daudrich and his supporters.

Daudrich said he wants to join Khan and help the PCs win an election.

“As a honest broker and as a loyal PC party guy, I want to help him become the next premier.”

At least one PC caucus member has denounced Daudrich for “outrageous and offensive comments,” including his suggestion that turning polar bears loose in downtown Winnipeg would solve its homelessness crisis and that the province providing free prescription contraceptives allows vulnerable women “to be more sexually active.”

Daudrich also called for the PCs to drop “progressive” from the party name.

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During question period last month, PC health critic and Roblin MLA Kathleen Cook said of Daudrich: “He doesn’t stand for me.”

Daudrich said family and friends fight all the time.

“But you know, I believe in the grace of God — that he forgives and we can put things aside. Do we have to agree on everything? No. And there’s nobody in this world that would agree with me 100 per cent and vice versa. So we have to act together in the common good,” he said.

“In order to form government and to get Manitoba out of the economic and moral malaise that we find ourselves in, we need to form government.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.