Much rides on PC leadership contest

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/12/2023 (751 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Walking through Henteleff Park one morning in November 2019, I received an email that stopped me dead in my tracks.

It was from Elections Manitoba. There had been an administrative error in the counting of ballots in my electoral district of Riel. My blood ran cold as I read that two ballot boxes from the advance polls had been misplaced and left uncounted until now — a full two months after the election and long after I’d been sworn in as the incumbent. Not to worry, the email assured, as the previously uncounted ballots only contributed to a larger plurality. My victory remained solid.

OK, I thought, but what if it had been a tighter race and these new ballots closed the gap between myself and the next trailing candidate? I’d already been sworn in and taken the oath of office. Would there’ve been a court challenge? A byelection? Worse than any outcome in my electoral district, there undoubtedly would’ve been an erosion of public trust. Fortunately, none of that came to pass in 2019, and as we’ve seen in the past provincial election, any perceived strain on the electoral system is cause for chagrin. This time it was delays caused by a new electronic voting system, creating slight chaos, but thankfully those issues were ultimately addressed, and the result was a widespread belief that a free and fair election had been held.

Moral of the story is that mistakes happen, but when they are fixed in a transparent manner and the process is continually improved, there is reason for optimism.

Not necessarily a fair comparison, but let’s contrast this with a process for a political party choosing its leader. Specifically, the PC Party of Manitoba, now on the cusp of a new leadership contest, currently has about five per cent of the public holding a political membership and it is these committed few that will get to pick the next party leader. The stakes are not as high as when former premier Brian Pallister stepped down and the party picked someone who went directly into the premier’s office, but the next PC leader will become the Leader of the Official Opposition, a job that is immensely important to Manitoba’s democracy and one integral to shaping the party’s future.

It’s not a process to be taken lightly and one which from the get-go is rife with challenge. There are opposing interests within the party membership — some want to pivot to the centre and others want to pivot right — yet central to all this is a desire to pick someone everyone believes will have the best shot at winning the next election. This should not be confused with picking someone necessarily best suited to serve the interests of all Manitobans. Being a good politician with a knack for winning is not the same as having an ability to lead. One of the best leaders in recent PC party history is MLA Kelvin Goertzen, as evidenced by his success as interim premier, but unfortunately there were (false, in my opinion) beliefs that he was not best positioned for a win.

I digress, but with so much at stake and so many divergent viewpoints in the party, one thing everyone can get behind is a working process that is flawless. Anything less is chaos, as evidenced in the breakdown of the 2021 PC leadership contest. This not only embroiled the party in costly court battles, it turned it into a rudderless entity so consumed with division it made a continuous stream of bad choices in attempts to sew up fractured seams.

For the party’s sake, one can only hope for a better process. To that end, the entire PC party membership is coming together to vote on new governing rules next month.

A great step for renewal, except that all memberships are set to expire on New Year’s Eve.

Party staff are apparently working on this oversight to ensure bona fide members get to participate, but it is labour-intensive work. Add to that, staff numbers at party headquarters are significantly down and have been for several years. Unless enhanced, this is history repeating itself with another environment unable to rapidly process memberships and mail out correspondence and invitations, ultimately leading to more erosion of trust among the membership.

Any hope for renewal begins with competent, stable staff members under the direction of a competent board all working to ensure the unfolding of a fair process. Anything less will lead to the repeat of a beleaguered team weathering another storm for a beleaguered and fractured party unable to uphold its commitments as a competent opposition, much less a government.