Tories romp to Manitoba majority
WINNIPEG • The Progressive Conservatives stormed to power Tuesday and will form a majority government in Manitoba.
Brian Pallister’s Tories have swept out the NDP in the provincial election — taking power in Manitoba for the first time in 16 years.
Polls had shown the Tories with a comfortable lead throughout the five-week campaign.
Pallister rode to victory on a promise to build infrastructure, increase trade and reverse a sales tax hike that many believe doomed Premier Greg Selinger and his NDP when they broke a promise and introduced it in 2013. The decision prompted a number of Selinger’s cabinet ministers to revolt and forced a leadership contest last year that he barely survived.
Pallister joins Brad Wall of Saskatchewan as another voice of conservatism on the Prairies.
His victory also means the NDP’s orange wave continues to recede in Canada. The federal NDP were reduced to third-party status in the past federal election and Selinger’s defeat means Premier Rachel Notley is the only NDP premier in the country.
The PCs and then-premier Gary Filmon lost power to Gary Doer and the NDP in 1999 in Manitoba and had been the official Opposition ever since.
The election capped a campaign that often seemed nasty and personal.
Last week, Selinger called Pallister “homophobic” for voting against a law in 2013 that requires schools to allow gay-straight alliances set up by students.
Last week, Pallister was on the defensive over a vacation home in Costa Rica and the amount of time he has spent there.
Even before the campaign started, Selinger was accused of using non-political civil servants for a pre-election NDP announcement — the third time his government had been accused of using government resources for partisan purposes.
At the final leaders debate, Pallister suggested the province was being run by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and assured people that would change if his party took power.
Selinger promised to make big investments in infrastructure, add care home beds and expand service at clinics to reduce pressure on emergency rooms. He’s also offered help to students with loans and tuition. The cost would be continued deficits until at least 2021.
Pallister also promised to invest in infrastructure, but also to reduce the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from eight. He has also said the PCs will raise income tax brackets with inflation and join the New West Partnership trade agreement with other western provinces.
The Liberals ran on a platform on converting student loans into grants, implementing full-day kindergarten, putting mental-health care under medicare and arranging free ambulance rides for low-income seniors.