Two campaigns — going in one direction?

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/01/2025 (235 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With months yet to go in the race to determine who will lead Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative Party, one thing is already clear: the party is on a rightward trajectory.

Party members won’t vote on a new leader until April 26, choosing between former cabinet minister and Blue Bomber Obby Khan, and Churchill businessman Wally Daudrich.

Daudrich has drawn much attention since he entered the race due to his explicit desire to bring the party further to the right, embracing social conservatism and expressing disdain for both legalized marijuana and safe consumption sites.

That one such as Daudrich should enter the race should come as no surprise. Conservative parties far and wide are facing pressure from within segments of their constituencies to embrace ever more right-wing positions, whether those positions be related to drug policy, or LGBTTQ+ rights.

By comparison, Khan seems the more palatable candidate, both to non-PC voters who might wish for a more moderate leader of the party, and for party members who fear the destruction of traditional, small-C conservatism — and in Manitoba, its “progressive” element — beneath a rising, reactionary tide. Khan’s resume and skills as a retail politician paint a portrait of him as the more moderate of the two. However, this is not necessarily the case.

Critics of Khan haven’t forgotten that during Heather Stefanson’s ill-conceived 2023 election campaign, Khan was the face of its “parental rights” plank. When the party promised to enhance “parental rights” — the term for a decidedly anti-LGBTTQ+ movement which sought to eliminate a students’ right to privacy regarding their gender identity at school — Khan’s face was on the posters. He has since voiced support for the federal Transgender Day of Visibility, but that appears to be thin gruel for those who would like a more full accounting of his position.

That disastrous campaign is something Khan has largely left behind him. However, his involvement hasn’t been forgotten by activists who remember its sting; Charlie Eau, the executive director of Trans Manitoba, told this paper in November last year that both Khan and Daudrich have bad records on trans issues. (While Daudrich has said he is not opposed to transgender rights, he has also stood behind old social media posts in which he referred to a trans woman as a “man dressed in woman’s clothing.”)

The campaign for PC leadership will not be solely about social conservative issues, of course, nor will a future provincial campaign. However, Khan’s involvement in that ‘23 campaign pitch leaves a lingering question: are his politics actually more moderate than his opponent, or does it just seem that way because he’s more quiet about it?

Does Khan have any lingering regrets about his involvement in that campaign, or does his involvement prove he’s willing to co-sign regressive views if it will capture a chunk of voters?

Where each candidate stands on these issues is important for more than one reason. For starters, a potent opposition party can damage efforts to bolster the rights of marginalized people without having to actually be in power.

But more than that, it is because of far-right actors constantly forcing discussions on culture-war issues that we must constantly return to them. Subjects such as LGBTTQ+ rights in Canada should be considered a done deal, yet we repeatedly reopen the debate because of the insistence of reactionary politicians and their voters.

It’s all energy and time wasted, which could instead be spent on discussing actual crises in, for example, health care and climate change.

Whether or not one is a PC voter, it matters whether or not their next leader is willing to lend an ear to these views. Manitobans deserve a political discourse which focuses on pressing issues affecting us all, instead of one contingent putting its energy into dragging us backward, over and over.

A pity, then, that both of the men gunning for the PC leadership seem likely, in their own ways, to do just that.