Controversy? Conspiracy in cryptic Conservative code? Just another day for Manitoba Tories By: Dan Lett Posted: 12:54 PM CDT Friday, May. 26, 2023

Opinion

Stop the presses. Former federal Conservative MP Candice Bergen thinks youth today are “entitled” and they have been “brainwashed” by post-secondary and public education.

If you’re wondering right now what exactly Bergen was trying to communicate, and why, you are not alone.

The opposition NDP used question period to drop a 78-second clip of an address Bergen — who is the co-chair of the Progressive Conservative 2023 election campaign — delivered to a group of young Tories at an event held in a meeting room at the Manitoba Legislative Building. The recording included several pretty bizarre comments.

Included in that category was a somewhat cryptic comment about how young people have been “brainwashed” by education.

“Many — not you — but many young people have been brainwashed, frankly, whether it’s in university or even as children at school,” Bergen is heard saying. “It’s a challenge.”

What did Bergen mean by “brainwashed?” Who does she think, exactly, is being brainwashed, and to what end?

And what did she mean when she said “not you?” Is she suggesting it was obvious the assembled youth had not been brainwashed because they had taken time out of their schedules to attend a partisan speech by a veteran federal legislator and steward for the PC party’s election campaign?

We may never know for sure. For yet again, when faced with the potential for controversy, the PC government has fanned the flames of speculation by refusing to answer direct questions and relying instead on prepared statements.

(Side memo to Tories: I don’t know how many times this needs to be said, but your “duck-and-run” communications strategy is not working. When you hide everyone involved in a story, and then issue canned statements that do not answer the questions being asked, you make things worse for yourselves. But I digress.)

The statement issued on behalf of Bergen only partially addressed the concerns that had been raised. She would not explain, for example, what she meant by “brainwashed” or why she was, in her role as chair of the PC election campaign, in the Legislative Building addressing a crowd of young Tories, with the premier in attendance.

More on that later.

Mountain or molehill?

Bergen’s statement claimed her address was “a positive and inspiring discussion… with engaged youth.” She also claimed the recording, which was only a partial record of her address, did not include the moment when she paid respect to “all young people” who get involved in politics, regardless of their partisan affiliation.

Is the NDP trying to turn a molehill of a speech into a mountain of controversy?

That is, partly, the role of the official Opposition and upon careful review of Hansard, there is more than a little hyperbole built into the NDP’s latest howls of outrage.

However, it’s hard to convict the New Democrats of negligent exaggeration without being able to speak directly with Bergen so that she could explain her “brainwashed” comment.

In this day and age of political extremism, a cryptic comment such as that easily summons images of anti-academic, anti-intellectual ravings by libertarian activists.

In this day and age of political extremism, a cryptic comment such as that easily summons images of anti-academic, anti-intellectual ravings by libertarian activists.

Throughout her long and successful political career, Bergen has successfully maintained a delicate balance between the extremists in her old riding of Portage-Lisgar — perhaps one of the most extreme right-wing constituencies in Canada — and more centrist Tories.

For example, she is stridently anti-abortion, but does support same-sex marriage and lobbied to remove the words “traditional definition” of marriage from the Conservative party constitution. She voted against a bill banning conversion therapy, but claimed it was only because of the wording.

More importantly, she is a confident and somewhat elegant interview, someone who would hardly be intimidated by having to answer questions from reporters on her address to young Tories. Not making her available makes her not only look like she’s hiding something, it suggests she isn’t up to the task of a scrum.

She could easily handle one. Whether she has something more to hide is the question left hanging in the air.

Campaign events strictly prohibited

At this point, we should circle back to the fact that this event was held inside the Legislative Building.

The Young Tories Instagram page indicated the reception was held in the Golden Boy Dining Room, located near the main Legislative Building cafeteria that is often rented out for special occasions. The issue of concern here is not necessarily where this event was held, but rather that Bergen was the keynote speaker.

If the premier wants to hold court with Tory youth in the Legislative Building, and we’re not in an official election campaign, then that would be, by tradition, an acceptable event.

But when you invite your campaign co-chair, you are veering dangerously close to holding a campaign event, and that’s something that is strictly prohibited by the rules of the Legislative Building. Campaign officials who are not part of the official bureaucracy, Executive Council or elected caucus really ought to do their glad-handing outside the building.

In the grand scheme of events, this is not a seismic event that should impact the coming election campaign. But it is yet another reminder the PC government has little or no sense of its own mortality.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com