NDP premiers share political war stories

Canada’s two NDP premiers swapped war stories about right-wing foes Saturday in a fireside chat at the Manitoba New Democrats convention at the Fairmont Hotel.

Premier Wab Kinew and British Columbia Premier David Eby both talked about battling back from health care cuts made by their conservative predecessors and protecting Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ rights when challenged by opponents campaigning on such divisive issues.

“They’re all using the same playbook,” said Eby, whose NDP face an October election in B.C. and are ahead of the provincial Conservatives by just four points in the polls, according to a Liaison Strategies for the National Ethnic Press Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) poll released April 12. (It shows the NDP leading with 34 per cent, the Conservatives with 30 per cent, BC United with 12 per cent, the Greens with eight per cent, and 14 per cent of those surveyed undecided.)

Eby told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 450 delegates that the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives campaigning on a refusal to search a landfill for the remains of Indigenous women that police believe were murdered and are buried there “blew me away.”

Both premiers recalled protests over sexual orientation and gender identity — dubbed “SOGI” in B.C. and “parental rights” in Manitoba. Eby said his province passed legislation to create buffer zones around schools to protect students and staff. “We had people yelling at kids, banging on windows of schools — unbelievably bad conduct,” he said.

In Manitoba, the PC’s campaigned on “parental rights” as a wedge issue, Kinew said. “There were huge rallies that had big impacts,” including parents keeping their children home from school, the premier said. As soon as the election was over, the issue died, he noted.

“To me, it was such a clear indication of how cynical the politics are around that issue,” said Kinew. He wished Eby well as he heads towards another election.

“You are up against something very ugly that’s trying to take advantage of people to score cheap political points,” the Manitoba premier told his B.C. counterpart.

Earlier in the day, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh told the convention he hopes to replicate the Manitoba NDP’s winning ways by defeating a “divisive” Tory opponent with a uniting message of hope.

“The campaign was inspirational across the country,” Singh told the delegates, who acclaimed Jill Stockwell president and Chantel Bacon treasurer on Saturday.

“There’s a lot to learn from the work of Premier Kinew and the New Democrat team here in Manitoba,” Singh told reporters after receiving a standing ovation from the party faithful at their first gathering since winning the Oct. 3 election. He promised to fight for workers, win more seats and keep Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives from taking power. They can do that by using the Manitoba NDP’s winning formula that took down the Progressive Conservatives under former leader Heather Stefanson, Singh said.

“They ran a very ugly campaign that purposely worked to pit neighbour against neighbour,” Singh said of the PCs. He told reporters it was a “very racist campaign that tried to politicize the deaths of Indigenous women.”

“The New Democrats came up with a very powerful, unifying campaign and said ‘we’ve got real solutions for the serious problems you’re up against’. We want to build on that type of campaigning that’s honest, which fights for people and is inspirational and positive and unifying, at a time when there’s a lot of divisions out there… I want to give people hope.”

His federal New Democrats will get their first chance to show whether or not they can beat the Conservatives — who lead in national polls — with a federal byelection looming in Elmwood-Transcona. There, NDP incumbent Daniel Blaikie stepped down March 31 to work as Kinew’s senior advisor on intergovernmental affairs.

Singh said he was excited to have two candidates seeking the nomination in that riding — Leila Dance and Leilani Esteban.

The provincial party, meanwhile, called on its members to give their time and money ahead of a Tuxedo byelection due in the next six months after Stefanson resigned her seat last week.

The NDP are focused on taking the wealthy constituency that’s been Tory blue for more than 40 years.

“It can be done,” NDP MLA Mike Moroz (River Heights) told the convention crowd.

“River Heights is proof that it can,” he said. The well-to-do enclave he represents was considered a safe Liberal or Progressive Conservative seat until Moroz beat Liberal incumbent Jon Gerrard on Oct. 3.

“Elections at the end of the day aren’t that complicated,” said Moroz, a former teacher.

”They’re about math — putting boots on the ground in the constituency on a consistent basis,” the rookie MLA said.

“That’s what we did in River Heights. That’s what we need to do in Tuxedo,” said Moroz.

Dates for the Winnipeg byelections have not been announced.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca