Brian Pallister was able to do something no other Manitoba politician has been able to do in the 21st century: defeat the NDP. Pallister and his Progressive Conservatives completely overhauled the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, capturing 40 of the 57 ridings.
The NDP won 37 ridings in the 2011 election, but fell to 14 seats in this election. Premier Greg Selinger, who barely survived a leadership battle last year, resigned as party leader during his concession speech.
The Progressive Conservatives campaigned on reducing the provincial sales tax from 8% to 7%. The 1 percentage point increase by Selinger was not popular even within the NDP, which led in part to the leadership battle.
Pallister, who looms large in a room at 6'8", had his conservative talking points, focusing on lower tax rates, getting rid of waste in government, and having more money on the kitchen table and less money on the cabinet table. He said Manitobans have to be good shoppers because of high taxes, and they'll be good shoppers of your tax money.
But U.S. people would be surprised as other points Pallister made. He said everyone will be treated as a supporter, they would work to improve scores in reading and math, and build teams to shorten wait times for health care.
Pallister said the PCs would restore the secret ballot for union certification. On the surface and to American ears, that sounded positive for unions. Turns out that current Manitoba law has automatic certification if at least 65% of employees sign membership cards. Pallister's plan is to have 2 requirements: the cards and a secret ballot.
Pallister said his new government would work to promote tourism. As someone who wants to be a tourist in Manitoba, I'm curious as to what they will involve.
He did say that the PCs ran a "principled, practical, and positive campaign" without "desperate, U.S. style politics."
The PCs had done well in rural ridings, but had struggled within Winnipeg in recent elections. 2016 brought ridings that have historically been NDP into the PC column.
Pallister did come under criticism in the campaign for the amount of time he has spent in his Costa Rica home. The PC leader had spent 240 days in Costa Rica since September 2012. Pallister also initially claimed he wasn't in Costa Rica during the 2014 massive flood in Manitoba, but admitted later that he was in Costa Rica during the flood.
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The tax increase, the leadership fight, 17 years in power. All reasons why the NDP reign came to a close. Premier Greg Selinger has had a rough go in the last couple of years, something Pallister acknowledged in his victory speech as he stood up for Selinger.
The NDP had dominated Winnipeg, which has 31 of the 57 ridings in the province. The NDP lost a considerable number of seats in the capital city. The party retained 12 city ridings, including the Selinger win in St. Boniface, and a pair of rural ridings in far northwestern Manitoba.
Selinger ran through a number of accomplishments in his concession speech: doubling of the size of the Winnipeg Convention Centre, building of the MTS Centre, more people living in downtown Winnipeg, safer streets in Winnipeg, the lowest unemployment rate in the country. Selinger said these accomplishments were done in partnership.
The NDP reign started in 1999 with Gary Doer, who was the Manitoba premier until 2009 and then served as Canada's Ambassador to the United States until last month.
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The 40 seats were the most for any party in Manitoba history, though the NDP won 37 seats in the 2011 election. The NDP fell from 35 (with 2 vacancies) when the election was called to 14 seats. The Progressive Conservatives went from 19 to 40 seats. The Liberals went from 1 to 3 seats.
Like the Saskatchewan election, the Manitoba election was supposed to be held last fall. The federal election delayed the Manitoba provincial election from October 6, 2015 to this week.
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The Liberals tripled their output in the Legislative Assembly from a single member to 3 members. Jon Gerrard was re-elected in River Heights, Cindy Lamoureux won in Burrows, and Judy Klassen narrowly won the Kewatinook riding in far northeastern Manitoba.
Liberal Party leader Rana Bokhari ran in the Fort Rouge riding but came in 3rd, losing out to Wab Kinew for the NDP. Kinew is a hip hop musician and is known for his roles as programming host on CBC radio and television. Bokhari was the only major party leader who didn't give a speech during the CBC window.
The relatively strong output is rather amazing given that the party only ran 51 candidates in the 57 ridings. The beginning of the campaign was especially unkind to the Liberals. The party lost a candidate due to a previous assault conviction, another for sexist tweets, and 4 rural candidates for improper address information on nomination forms.
The oddest might have come from Billy Moore, the last-minute Liberal candidate in Brandon West, who said that closing hospitals would result in a reduction of healthcare wait times.
This election was the first time since 1999 that the Liberals did not run a full slate of candidates. The Liberals haven't formed government in Manitoba since 1953.
The oddity in this election was a left-of-center party dominating for 17 years, yet the votes didn't seem to go to other left-of-center parties. A lot of people who normally vote NDP went for the Progressive Conservatives.
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James Beddome is the Green Party leader in Manitoba. The party did lead in a couple of seats early in the night, but ultimately didn't win a seat again in the legislative assembly. We've seen the uphill fight in other provincial election, even ones where a Green Party candidate won a provincial riding.
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The panel of experts in political coverage is often filled with people who are on the outside but connected to their parties in some way. The CBC panel in Winnipeg had some true bona fides to be there.
- Theresa Oswald was the unofficial "Gang of 5" leader of the NDP Cabinet members who ultimately resigned from cabinet against Selinger's management. She ran for the party leadership and came close to defeating Selinger in the race for party leader in 2015. Oswald chose not to run for re-election from Seine River.
- Kelvin Goertzen was running for re-election in the Steinbach riding for the PC Party. Goertzen was pretty confident he would win again, and he did capture 89.2% of the vote.
- Kevin Lamoureux is a Winnipeg Liberal MP for Parliament in Ottawa, and served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1988-1999 and 2003-2010. Lamoureux's twist is that his daughter Cindy ran in the Burrows riding and defeated the NDP incumbent.
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Springtime elections often run into problems with the Stanley Cup playoffs in Canada. Rogers simulcasted the CBC feed of Game 4 of the Detroit series on OLN Canada so that those in Manitoba could watch the game. CBC in Manitoba showed election coverage instead of the game. Rogers owns OLN Canada.
CBWT, Channel 6 in Winnipeg, is Manitoba's only CBC station; CKX-TV out of Brandon operated until 2009. There isn't a good option to carry both streams of programming other than streaming them on the computer. CHEX/Peterborough used to be an option for a second TV feed, however, Rogers is now in control of the NHL feeds and CHEX is now a CTV affiliate.
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photos credit: CBC Manitoba
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