Goertzen likely centre of shuffle

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This article was published 18/06/2018 (2815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Could Premier Brian Pallister be poised to shuffle his cabinet?

As his government tries to extricate itself from a prolonged spring legislative session — extended by procedural wrangling by the opposition New Democratic Party — it certainly seems to be about time to shuffle his cabinet deck.

Pallister has been in power just over two years, which is typically the point at which new governments start to carefully assess whether they have the right people in the right jobs.

The next two years leading up to the election of fall 2020 are certainly not a time to keep underperformers in important jobs.

Although there are no glaring gaps in Pallister’s lean-and-mean cabinet roster, it seems more and more likely that Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen will be at the centre of any mid-summer shuffle — and not necessarily because he is doing a poor job.

Manitobans can surely debate the Tory approach to health care, which has involved layoffs, service reductions and a sweeping reorganization of hospital resources in Winnipeg, but even political opponents believe Goertzen is a capable minister.

The prospect of a move from health really reflects Goertzen’s own desire to do something different.

In Tory circles, it is widely known that Goertzen did not want to be health minister.

Some believe he really coveted the opportunity to serve as Speaker — a job that ironically went to Myrna Driedger — who made no secret of the fact that she wanted to be in the health post.

Others have suggested Goertzen — a graduate of the University of Manitoba law school — would have preferred to be justice minister.

Either way, sources both inside the caucus and in broader party circles believe Goertzen has made it clear he’d like to shed the health portfolio, having grown weary of the attention and relentless workload that comes with the government’s single biggest cost.

How badly does Goertzen want a change in cabinet scenery? Recent events suggest Goertzen is doing what he can to convince Pallister it’s time to make a change.

Last week, Goertzen found himself in the hot seat for his decision to speak at the Life Hike Rally, an anti-abortion event in Steinbach where he shared the stage with Canadian pro-life activist Mike Schouten.

Schouten is the director of We Need A Law, a Vancouver-based advocacy group that is lobbying to place legislative limits on access to abortion services.

He is also a former candidate for the federal Christian Heritage Party, a far-right fringe party that opposes abortion, physician-assisted suicide and same-sex marriage, while advocating for a more restrictive immigration policy that would impose a moratorium on immigrants from “Sharia-based” countries to preserve Canada’s “Judeo-Christian values.”

Goertzen is well-known as a religious man who represents a decidedly conservative and religious constituency. Still, Schouten is the kind of activist that even the most conservative of elected officials — at least those who harbour a desire to govern — would avoid at a public event.

There are, no doubt, many politicians in right-of-centre parties who agree with Schouten’s views.

Most are smart enough to know that these perspectives are toxic and divisive, even within the caucus of a conservative-leaning party such as the Manitoba PCs.

Goertzen’s decision to participate in the event with Schouten was seized upon by NDP critic Andrew Swan, who accused Goertzen of disrespecting women and their right to make their own health decisions.

This has been a frequent line of attack against Goertzen, particularly after Pallister made the decision to excise female reproductive health from his portfolio and give it to Status of Women Minister Rochelle Squires.

That was a fairly transparent, albeit unsuccessful, attempt to keep Goertzen as far away as possible from issues such as abortion.

Goertzen responded to the criticism by saying he started attending the event more than a decade ago with his wife to deal with the tragedy of having had five miscarriages.

“It’s a personal mission for us to speak more publicly about it,” he told the legislature last week.

There are two ways to view the Life Hike controversy.

First, that Goertzen was only keeping a commitment to an event that is popular in his constituency and that he has supported for years. It would have been extremely awkward for him to pull out just because Schouten was involved.

The other view is that, in attending the event with a polarizing political figure, Goertzen is challenging the leadership of his own party, which has taken deliberate steps to keep socially conservative issues such as abortion in the background.

A week earlier, the PC party tried to make a meaningful contribution to Winnipeg Pride day celebrations, including having Pallister speak at a rally held on the legislature grounds. Pallister has been careful as Manitoba’s first minister to distance himself from controversial comments he made in the past about same-sex marriage.

In the context of his party’s attempts to appear more progressive, or perhaps less regressive, Goertzen’s decision to share the stage with Schouten seems to be haphazard, at best.

But then again, it could just be Goertzen’s way of reminding Pallister that, notwithstanding his stoic performance in the health portfolio, it’s time to assign him duties that leave him further away from issues such as women’s reproductive health.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca