Selinger says he paid for Jets ticket by donation
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2014 (3418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Premier Greg Selinger has changed his tune about whether he’s always paid directly for Winnipeg Jets tickets.
In a statement today, he admitted that he made a donation to a non-profit housing corporation in lieu of paying for a Dec. 29, 2011 game at the MTS Centre.
He attended the game in the True North box at the invitation of Saskatchewan Party MLA Ken Cheveldayoff, brother of the Jets’ general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
The following spring, when the issue of government MLAs taking advantage of free Jets tickets became an issue in the Manitoba legislature, then-Conservative Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen asked Selinger whether he had ever had tickets provided to him that he didn’t pay for personally. The premier said “no.”
McFadyen asked the premier whether he directly purchased his tickets from the Jets box office.
The premier replied: “I directly purchased my own tickets, yes.”
The premier also publicly rapped the knuckles of several members of his own caucus for accepting free Jets tickets. Among them were Andrew Swan and Stan Struthers, two of five cabinet ministers who recently resigned their portfolios over Selinger’s leadership.
Conservative Leader Brian Pallister said it’s not enough that the premier paid for the ticket with a donation. He said he and his caucus colleagues have a rule against accepting freebies.
“I think the reality is that the rules are the rules and we should all abide by them, but that hasn’t been the case with the NDP,” Pallister said.
“What you’re seeing is an embarrassment, a further embarrassment, beyond the shenanigans of recent weeks,” he said, referring to the rift in the NDP over Selinger’s leadership. “It’s another example of the dysfunction of this government.”
In his statement, the premier said:
“Every Jets game I’ve attended I paid for, including the 2011 game in question, which I paid for by donation.
“I attended a game at the invitation of Ken Cheveldayoff, an elected representative from Saskatchewan. He didn’t want reimbursement for the ticket but recommended I make a donation which I subsequently did to a non-profit housing organization. The ticket was paid for by donation.
“I also purchased season tickets directly from the Jets.”
The Free Press contacted Ken Cheveldayoff by telephone last week about the game in question. The Saskatchewan politician said at the time that both he and Selinger “made a point” of purchasing their own tickets.