The timeline

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2009 (5811 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Aug. 27: Gary Doer announces he will step down as premier and NDP party leader.

 

Sept. 2: Andrew Swan, 41, Doer’s competitiveness, training and trade minister and a rising star in the party, is first to enter the race.

 

Sept. 4: Steve Ashton, 53, Doer’s intergovernmental affairs minister, announces his candidacy at the Union Centre.

 

Sept. 8: After taking time to ponder his future, Greg Selinger, 58, the longtime finance minister, enters the race.

 

Sept. 11: Ashton uses the backdrop of city hall to say that if he becomes premier he’ll introduce legislation to protect the city’s water supply from being privatized.

 

Sept. 14: Ashton’s campaign officials announce they have signed up or renewed 1,100 party memberships and suggest he could score a narrow victory on the first ballot.

 

Sept. 16: Swan receives an endorsement from Manitoba’s largest private sector union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832.

 

Sept. 17: Selinger promises to put more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the road in Manitoba. He would create a centre of excellence at Red River Col–lege to convert more existing hybrid vehicles to plug-in hybrids.

 

Sept. 20: Delegate selection begins with meetings in three constituencies. Selinger takes an early lead.

 

Sept. 23: Party brass tells the Manitoba NDP’s youth wing, which boasts more than 1,000 members, that it will not directly select delegates to the Oct. 17 convention. Instead young NDPers will vote directly for the leadership candidate of their choice. The candidate will then select youth delegates based on how many votes he got. Ashton gets most of the votes — and delegates.

 

Sept. 27: Ashton sweeps all 120 available delegates in The Pas, despite the fact that the area MLA supported Swan. Swan drops out of the race the following day, throwing his support behind Selinger.

 

Sept. 30: A Probe Research Inc./Free Press survey of 1,000 Manitobans says Selinger would be the best man to replace Gary Doer.

 

Oct. 2: Ashton’s leadership campaign team demands that the NDP executive throw out the results of delegate-selection meetings in three constituencies because of what it calls "uncommon discrepancies and irregular–ities." The party later denies the appeal.

 

Oct. 3: Ashton takes nearly all 138 delegate spots up for grabs in the Maples, greatly narrowing the gap between the two leadership candidates.

 

Oct. 6: After youth and constituency delegates are chosen, Selinger and Ashton appear to be running neck and neck, with Selinger’s camp claiming support from 741 delegates and Ashton’s campaign claiming 689. Another 125 elected delegates supported Swan or did not state a preference.

 

Oct. 9: The Manitoba Federation of Labour says affiliated unions have returned some 80 to 90 of their 433 convention spots for redistribution. Some non-union party members receive credentials. Ashton says this flouts party rules, but his appeal is later denied.