The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The November Progressive Conservative annual meeting was one of the liveliest in decades, far more so than the eight this writer chaired in the '80's and 90's Ð and all because of the leadership resolution. After all, the party has not had a leadership convention since 1983, and many who attended were looking forward to this happening. Most of those claimed not to be against Stu but wanted to "clear the air"(whatever that means). Some reports seemed to give the impression that leader Murray had done little and was spending his time merely reacting to the NDP, but nothing is further from the truth. As the leader noted in a letter to delegates, the party is in full pre-writ mode with a developed campaign policy, money in the bank, and a campaign team in place. Stuart expands on the policy, mentioning health care, education and justice as priorities, plus getting Manitoba's finances in order to be able to give families much-needed tax relief. He claims that our middle class earners pay the highest income taxes in Canada, while our province's debt now stands at $20 billion, increasing at a rate of $1.5 million/day. Party resolutions submitted by constituency associations took up considerable time, with some quite controversial. Resolutions became part of the business of the party when this writer was President. Each year we attended on invitation the Saskatchewan PC's annual meeting. We were impressed by the grassroots on everything from party matters to the economy, education and health. The next year, the leader and caucus had to report back on the resolutions and whether they had been adopted or not Ð and if not, why not. The Manitoba PCs adopted the system, but when in government sometimes ignored the wishes of the party. For example, at two conventions a resolution was passed to start all schools in Manitoba after Labour Day. The Manitoba Education Minister ignored this, as she wanted to allow school boards more autonomy. This created chaos, harmed the tourist industry, and was picked up by the NDP who got credit for "making summer longer." There were a couple of interesting education resolutions, one of which I spoke on. This was a proposal to detach principals from the Manitoba Teacher's Society and let them form their own union. I pointed out that principals had been members of the Society forever, had to be teachers, and had played active roles in the organization. Former Tory MP, the Hon. Gordon Churchill, was noted as both principal of Dauphin Collegiate and the Society. Myself and others mentioned that the organization had been very responsible over the years with not one work stoppage. The resolution was overwhelmingly defeated. A couple of other educational resolutions were proposed: one to reinstate provincial exams in math and English at grades 6, 9, and 12, but the request to have the exams worth 50 per cent was dropped. Another resolved that parents of students who receive remedial education and pay, receive a credit on their taxes. Another asked the party to develop proposals to encourage students to respect and take part in the political process Ð in other words, to vote Ð a neat idea! A resolution to develop nuclear power in the province ws soundly defeated, but a number on agricultural issues passed as one would expect, as did a few to improve the health system, especially in rural Manitoba where emergency wards are closing in several hospitals. All in all, the resolutions sparked considerable interest, but the huge crowd hung around for the leadership resolution debate. That debate was passionate, but quite polite Ð some applause but few catcalls. The vote result did not match the debate, which is why I suppose you need a secret ballot. Who was there? Really a good mix of old, young and middle-aged Tories. All MLAs showed up. Representing Flin Flon were Nazir and Pat Ahmad, and I talked to many longtime members and friends. Ed Penner, president of the Steinbach PCs for years, and I joked about all the Steinbach voters being conservatives. There was also a good mix of PC youth, so necessary if the party is to survive. The party surprisingly chose a leadership convention, set later by the executive for April 29 of this year. Much more to come.
