Defeat won’t stop me: Ashton

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This article was published 28/04/2016 (2916 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steve Ashton is seated behind his massive ministerial desk, leaning forward in earnest as the words flow, his enthusiasm boundless whenever the subject of politics comes up.

The April 19 election spelled the end of an extraordinarily long run — 35 years — for the legislative assembly’s longest-serving member.

Ashton, a longtime cabinet minister many Manitobans will recall as the face of government during several major floods, is suddenly out of work after being booted out of the only job he’s known since the age of 25.

So, what’s next for the 60-year-old outgoing MLA and two-time NDP leadership candidate?

Ashton jokes he’s qualified to be either a Walmart greeter or a tour guide at the legislature.

“I’ve got the skill set for both.”

It’s tough to imagine this political lifer not being involved in politics in some capacity.

“Right now, I’m not sending off any resumés. The only thing I know is I’m still going to be involved in politics,” he said Friday as he packed up his office.

Premier-designate Brian Pallister and his Progressive Conservative cabinet will be sworn in Tuesday.

Ashton was asked if he would take a third run at the NDP leadership. He brushes off the question, but, when pinned down, refuses to rule it out.

The departing infrastructure and transportation minister refuses to place the blame — as some have —for the NDP’s embarrassing defeat on party leader Greg Selinger. He says there’s enough blame to go around, although he notes divisions within the party played a significant role in its loss after four majority government victories.

“The Tory attack ads were very effective,” he said, referring to TV clips showing the five cabinet rebels who led a revolt against Selinger’s leadership.

Yet, he refuses to blame the mutineers specifically for the NDP’s woes, saying the defeat was one the whole party must share.

The party was reduced to 14 seats in the 57-seat legislature.

Ashton becomes effusive when discussing what New Democrats need to do to right the ship.

He said the NDP must become a more democratic institution, with all party members electing its leaders instead of employing a delegate system as it has done in the past.

“There was far too much of an approach by certain elements in the party, call it the establishment if you want, to control the end result rather than end up with a process that would build the party,” he said.

The provincial NDP must also take a page from the federal party playbook and subject its leaders to regular leadership reviews with convention votes such as the one that recently saw Tom Mulcair ousted, Ashton said.

He said the NDP must develop new ideas and reach out to a new generation, especially millennials. And it must connect with broad continent-wide political movements, such as the drive for a “living minimum wage.”

Ashton noted U.S. Democratic party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, despite his advanced age at 74, has been successful in connecting with a younger generation.

“He’s changed politics for a generation in the U.S.,” he said.

Although it was one of the shocks on election night, Ashton said he was not surprised he lost his Thompson seat after nine straight wins.

He says he knows his constituency, and he could see signs he was in political trouble.

He also denies that questions raised over his involvement in pushing for an untendered contract to a political supporter for Tiger Dam flood fighting equipment swayed the result in his constituency. (However, he said that in hindsight, the contract should have been immediately tendered.)

Thompson was a microcosm of what occurred generally on election night, he said. “People voted for change.

“We (the NDP) were seen as the status quo.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca