Manitoba’s new premier

Gary Doer’s successor was chosen yesterday at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. To the surprise of very few, Greg Selinger, former finance minister of Manitoba, was chosen in a landslide over northern MLA Steve Ashton. Selinger will now take over easily the most popular party in Manitoba, and replace one of the most popular premiers Canada has ever witnessed.

Unfortunately, the race was typified more so by a number of controversial news leaks about the nature of the election process, rather than the differences between Selinger & Ashton’s policy proposals. This was the first time the NDP had used the delegate system instead of the one-member, one-vote method of the past. Due to the lack of attention afforded in the media towards Selinger’s proposals, he must act quickly to put forth his plan for the NDP party as it begins its ‘post-Gary’ phase. Simply aping Doer’s legacy will not bode well for the new leader, as he carries neither the charm nor charisma of his predecessor (to be fair though, few politicians do).

Instead, Selinger needs to hunker down and do what he claimed he has done best two weeks ago at the U of W: Consult with varied social groups through grassroots processes and build a coalition of support through progressive policies. Cases in point iterated at the leadership forum on Oct. 5 included the introduction of a greater ability for people living on welfare to achieve meaningful employment, the introduction of a ‘living wage’ in Manitoba, most relevant to university students, a committment to make the tuition rebate available to students while they’re still in school. In case you’re wondering, Ashton supported the re-introduction of a tuition freeze, while Selinger favours the Levin report which found that tuition fees should rise at a reasonable rate, while governments should increase their funding committments to post-secondary institutions.

Selinger comes off more as a policy-wonk than the effervescent Doer, or the rabble-rousing of Ashton. Due to this, it remains to be seen if Selinger will be able to increase the NDP’s already laudable support, or if a significant Doer-drop off will be evident by the next time Manitobans go to the polls.