Far-right campaign architects disgusted Manitobans, damaged Tory party brand

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2023 (746 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The next time someone tells you toxic, negative advertising in an election campaign is an effective way to win the hearts and minds of voters, tell them about the 2023 provincial election in Manitoba.

Experts tell us the reason political parties often resort to attack ads in election campaigns is because they work. They don’t, at least not the kind Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party used in this election campaign.

The U.S.-style ads, which the Tories ramped up in the final week of the campaign, were sleazy and sensationalist. They were cooked up by inept, far-right zealots in the Tory central campaign who are hopelessly out of touch with the political culture of Manitoba.

The PC party lost this election for a lot of reasons. The main one: Tory Leader Heather Stefanson refused to rebrand the party to make it more appealing to moderate Manitoba voters, particularly in Winnipeg. She had two years to do so after taking over from former premier Brian Pallister in November 2021. Instead, she clung to the status quo.

As predicted, the Tories lost big in Winnipeg, giving up key seats in all parts of the city. The losses were not surprising. The party failed to appeal to progressive voters in those regions, opting instead to pander to its base in southern, rural Manitoba.

It was apparent over a year ago the Tories were going to lose this race. The party made it clear it had no interest in connecting with the priorities of most Manitobans. Instead of focusing on rehabilitating health care, public schools and other front-line services, Stefanson continued to implement Pallister’s tax cuts and austerity measures.

It wasn’t until the 2023 budget, six months before an election, that Stefanson opened the purse strings in a Hail Mary attempt to turn her party’s political fortunes around. But even that wasn’t a complete transformation. Under Stefanson, the party continued to bring in widespread tax cuts and refused to reverse the damaging changes the Tories made in health care. There was no acknowledgement by Stefanson that government’s poorly executed hospital consolidation plan in Winnipeg, including the cuts to front-line staffing, were mistakes that negatively impacted patient care. Stefanson had a chance to accept responsibility for those errors and chart a new course. She chose not to.

There was also no attempt to mend strained relations with organized labour or adopt more progressive policies on social issues, such as accepting evidence from around the world that supervised consumption sites for people suffering from drug addiction save lives. Stefanson largely continued the agenda of her predecessor and it cost the party this election.

But it didn’t end there. Things went from bad to worse for the Tories after Stefanson enlisted hardliners to run the party’s election campaign, including appointing former Conservative MP Candice Bergen as co-chair. The party not only shifted further to the political right by proposing even deeper tax cuts (which would have required sharp spending reductions), the Tories adopted a brand of social conservatism that may work in Alberta or in parts of the United States but failed in Manitoba.

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The party’s promotion of “parental rights” in schools, a thinly veiled attack on LGBTTQ+ kids, was particularly loathsome. The Tories “stand firm” ads, which celebrated the party’s refusal to search the Prairie Green Landfill north of Winnipeg for the remains of First Nations women believed to be slain by an alleged serial killer, was despicable.

The campaign’s relentless focus on NDP Leader Wab Kinew’s past was racist and divisive. The use of Tory candidate Rejeanne Caron, a Winnipeg cop, as the designated attack dog to help spread those hate messages was repugnant. Not surprisingly, Caron, who was featured on bus benches around the city and who referred to Kinew on social media as a “wife beater,” lost badly to him in Fort Rouge.

Political extremism doesn’t work in Manitoba. It never has. Most Manitobans prefer a moderate brand of politics, one that emphasizes compassion, inclusivity and generosity. It is the Manitoba way. Voters made that clear in this election.

The PC party went to a very dark place in this election. It will take years for it to regain the trust of Manitobans. The people who ran this campaign did some serious damage to the Tory brand. Their actions were shameful.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

Tom Brodbeck
Columnist

Tom Brodbeck is an award-winning author and columnist with over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.

Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are 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.