Third Tory MLA announces intention to quit politics

Longtime Progressive Conservative MLA Ron Schuler announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election and will retire from politics when his seventh term ends.

Schuler, a member of the Manitoba legislature since 1999, when Gary Filmon was premier, told the Free Press he will be 64 when the next election is scheduled to be held Oct. 5, 2027.

“I think 64 is a great age to be stepping back and saying, ‘We need some renewal in the community’ — a new MLA, new energy, (someone who) represents a new generation,” Schuler said. “I think that’s all really good.”

Schuler will stay on as Springfield-Ritchot’s MLA until the current term ends. He said he announced his decision now to give the party and potential candidates ample time to prepare for a nomination process.

NDP Premier Wab Kinew hasn’t ruled out an early election.

Schuler is the third veteran Tory MLA to recently announce he will not seek re-election, joining Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach) and Doyle Piwniuk (Turtle Mountain).

Schuler was voted in as the MLA for Springfield in the 1999 election, after four years as a trustee in the River East School Division. In April 2006, he placed second to Hugh McFadyen for the Tory leadership.

After electoral redistribution, Schuler was the MLA for St. Paul and now Springfield-Ritchot thanks to successful bids for re-election.

Schuler said he’s proud of “billions of dollars” in investments and major projects in the communities he has served, as well as Perimeter Highway improvements, including new interchanges, that were unveiled or announced when he was infrastructure minister.

“I think 64 is a great age to be stepping back and saying, ‘We need some renewal in the community’ – a new MLA, new energy, (someone who) represents a new generation.”

After the 2016 election, then-premier Brian Pallister appointed him Crown Services minister and then minister of infrastructure, while also responsible for the Emergency Measures Organization during a long stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schuler was in the latter roles until December 2021, when then-premier Heather Stefanson removed him from cabinet after he refused to disclose his COVID-19 vaccination status. She expected all Tory MLAs to get vaccinated that month, while the province urged Manitobans to get their jabs.

“From everything I have heard from not just my constituents, but Manitobans and Canadians, and even travelling internationally, I think people want to put that behind us,” Schuler said in reference to the controversy.

He noted that he, a “civil libertarian,” signed off on the government’s emergency declarations during the pandemic in his role as the minister for EMO.

“One time I said to the premier, Pallister, ‘I lay awake at night knowing I have to sign this. Maybe you should put somebody else in this position because I do this with dread in my heart as a civil libertarian,’” Schuler said.

“He looked at me and he said, ‘That makes you the right person to do this because if you were doing cartwheels right now, then we would remove you.’”

Schuler was appointed caucus chair in February 2023 and re-elected in the most recent election in October that year.

Looking back, he said politics in general has become increasingly toxic in recent years, and heckling during question period has become mean-spirited compared with when he started.

“It came out of COVID, I think. The last two years, I’ve never seen it this toxic,” Schuler said.

He has no regrets during his time as an MLA.

“I did my best. I worked very hard at this,” Schuler said. “I always said I want to walk out of the (legislative) building the last day, with my little box of stuff, and I’m going to walk down that staircase, look back and say, ‘Best years of my life, shoulders straight, head high,’ and I’m going to walk out.

“I’m going to do it with grace and I’m going to do it with pride.”

Schuler said he doesn’t know what he will do after politics. He looks forward to spending time with his children and grandchildren. He thanked voters for supporting him over the last 26 years.

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said he doesn’t expect many similar announcements from PC MLAs, after three in a month.

The NDP’s popularity in opinion polls could affect some people’s decisions to stay or leave, he said.

“It’s a difficult thing to sit on the opposition benches when you might not think there’s a lot of opportunity to eventually get into cabinet,” Adams said.

“If Wab Kinew were to be re-elected in the next election, that would mean sitting in opposition for at least another four to six years from now. I can see people just deciding it’s probably time to leave.”

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca