NDP leadership convention starts tomorrow

RECORD FILE PHOTO BY AUSTIN GRABISH

A vote at the NDP leadership convention this weekend will determine if Premier Greg Selinger gets to keep his job or not. Two of his former most senior cabinet ministers are trying to unseat him.

By Austin Grabish, the Selkirk Record

It’s been talked about for months and now the highly anticipated NDP leadership convention is just a few days away.

The NDP’s 2015 convention starts tomorrow and will wrap up on Sunday in Winnipeg.

Delegates from across the province will attend the convention and some will go to the polls Sunday to choose the party’s next leader.

Embattled Premier Greg Selinger, Theresa Oswald, and Steve Ashton are all fighting to lead the NDP in the next provincial election.

The provincial NDP executive called a leadership race after Oswald and four other senior cabinet ministers publically called on Selinger to resign as part of a caucus revolt last November.

Ashton, Manitoba’s infrastructure and transportation minister at the time, was not part of the revolt, but stepped down from his post as minister to challenge Selinger shortly after the leadership race was called.

Ashton challenged Selinger back in 2009 at the NDP’s leadership convention but lost.

He has pledged to call a referendum on the controversial 2013 PST hike if elected premier.

Ashton had voted in favour of the hike while in office and had gloated about the benefits reeked from the hike at several press conferences, but has said the hike’s rollout could have been handled better.

The Tories have called the hike illegal and sued the NDP in a lawsuit, but lost.

Oswald has promised to offset the cost of the PST hike for low-income and working families by offering a rebate of $75 – $125 per year.

She also laid out her plan for her first 100 days in office if elected premier on Sunday. 

But Selinger has said Manitoba’s economy is stronger because of the PST hike.

The embattled premier has had less of a noticeable presence on the campaign trail than his two counterparts.

He refuses to talk about anything but government business with reporters during the day, but appears at delegation meetings some evenings.

He was in Selkirk two weeks ago for a party delegation meeting, which he won.

Neither Ashton nor Oswald had personally stopped for an event in Selkirk since taking the campaign trail.

Read next week’s Record for the results of the convention. 

-- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition March 5, 2015 p.15