Selinger makes his sales pitch

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This article was published 05/02/2015 (4138 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A confident Premier Greg Selinger stood in front of about 200 supporters Wednesday night to make the case why he should lead the NDP into the next election.

He stood at the front of the room, TV cameras pointed at him, reciting without notes his government’s record of building more hospital and schools, fighting natural disasters and making the province the second-strongest economy in the country.

But underneath the bravado was the reality that in about five weeks he could be out of a job.

After speaking for about 10 minutes, his voice started breaking with emotion, perhaps the first sign the strain of the past few months had finally caught up with him.

“You have said to me that we share your values,” he said. “I am your leader. I share your values. I am your premier. I share your priorities, and together we can make a difference.”

The event at the Riverview Community Centre was billed as an evening to show solidarity with Selinger’s continued leadership of the NDP, and it was only the second event of its kind he’s hosted since the leadership race started before Christmas. The first was Jan. 10 when he opened his leadership campaign office.

His competitors, ex-ministers Steve Ashton and Theresa Oswald, have been making several announcements a week, outlining their own policies on how they could do a better job than Selinger.

The leadership race was called by Selinger after Oswald and four other ministers resigned from cabinet over Selinger’s leadership, which has been sinking in popularity since the spring of 2013, when the government introduced the one-point hike to the provincial sales tax after Selinger promised in the 2011 election campaign he would not raise taxes. The race will be decided March 8 during the party’s annual convention.

“We’re going through a process, a democratic process, completely legitimate for people to want to exercise their franchise,” he said after being introduced by Justice Minister James Allum.

Selinger said he’s still inspired to represent the province and ordinary Manitobans and address the biggest issues that have confronted his government over the past five years, including supporting an aging population and dealing with poverty, racism and climate change.

“We search for a way forward that will make lives better for every Manitoban,” he said.

Selinger also warned about the austerity a Progressive Conservative government under Brian Pallister could bring to the province and the social damage it could do.

“It generates tremendous social conflict and tremendous turmoil and tremendous hardship, and that is not the way forward,” he said.

Selinger said while his leadership campaign has appeared fairly quiet in the past few weeks, he hasn’t.

“We’ve been doing the job,” he said. “We’ve been governing for the people of Manitoba.”

He said his leadership campaign is designed more to talk with people than make grand announcements.

“People have asked for house meetings as a chance to have a real dialogue and to listen to each other and to ask questions,” he said. “It’s not just about speeches and public announcements. It’s about building a sense of community based on shared values.”

The premier steered clear of commenting at length on this week’s complaint by Oswald the party had unfairly awarded the Manitoba arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees 288 delegate positions for the leadership vote, and in doing so violated its own rules on how delegate spots should be given to party-affiliated labour groups. CUPE has endorsed Selinger, the only major union to so far to endorse a candidate.

“There’s a process to deal with that in the party. It will be addressed.”

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca