Pallister Wins Second Term; How PC Numbers Have Changed Since 2011

With the return of Premier Brian Pallister to the helm of the province, the progressive left in its various forms fell far short of their hopes on election night in Manitoba, and a realignment is inevitable. 

Since 2011, the Progressive Conservatives have only increased its share of the popular vote by 3.36% to 47.07%, but has distributed votes to almost double the seats held, from 19 to 36. 
The NDP, which ruled the roost that year with 46.16% and 37 seats, have fallen to 31.38 percent of voter support, their seats cut by more than half to 18. Trying to halve that 15 point gap is the next step up the ladder. 

Former Premier Gary Filmon tells about the one that got away

As long as Wab Kinew can only attract 23% or so of voters outside Winnipeg, the NDP will never regain the seat of power. And by 2024, the term "FILMON" will be long put to rest, once and for all, as a dogwhistle to attack conservatives. 

While the Winnipeg Free Press framed the Kinew speech as "Despite election defeat, NDP does victory lap", the victory was over the other left wing opposition parties. The Tories were barely dented by Kinew, with none of the Winnipeg seats grabbed from the PC's qualifying as a total surprise. 

It was no secret backbencher Blair Yakimoski was in a tough fight in Transcona to retain, and in swing seat St. Vital, Jamie Moses was a persisent presence in the riding and decisively avenged his 2016 loss to Colleen Mayer. 

In my view, redistribution made St. James a tough but expected lost seat for the PC's.  If anything, the NDP failure to win the newly created McPhillips constituency in the north end of the city, where the Seven Oaks Hospital is located, was more surprising, as PC MLA Shannon Martin parachuted in and eeked out a return to the Legislature.

The prospects for the other two opposition parties dimmed greatly despite earlier polling which demonstrated the very definition of "parking their vote". After dislodging the volatile Rana Bokhari as Liberal leader, Dougald Lamont didn't move the dial beyond a .08% increase in electoral support in a disappointing result. He, Dr. Jon Gerrard in River Heights, and Cindy Lamoureaux (relocated to Tyndal Park), return to Broadway but the Libs fell short of official Party status.

Premier Pallister assured Audrey Gordon her
slim margin of victory in Southdale didn't bother him

Lamont waffled to the left with scads of climate change pronouncements trying to stem leakage to the Green Party, and made spending promises that even made socialists blush. In the process attracted only 5005 more votes and failed to hold a 4th seat and retain party status. 
The scant economic policy didn't chip into Tory support, and the ground game simply didn't materialize. I suspect the Trudeau government's scandals made even considering a checkmark beside a candidate labeled Liberal a no-go for more than a few voters. 

As for the Manitoba Green Party, support for leader James Beddome in Fort Rouge was tripled by Kinew, and the Party failed to close a 392 vote gap in Wolseley and saw it grow to 917, and out of reach, for David Nickarz. The Green wave is D-O-A here, and in his speech Kinew already promoted that progressive left is spelled N-D-P in this province. It's too bad because voters need more candidates with more new ideas, not less.

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Premier Pallister was working the room sharing the thrill of victory around 11 PM and when he noticed me, laughingly remarking how after all these years (we first met in 1993) "we're getting better with age!" 

"Mazel Tov! Hey, I want to get a 30 minute interview with you sometime." Immediately I got the infamous Pallister steely glare. "No." I figured he was joking so I said, "OK, 20 minutes then!"

"No. You, and Bartley Kives," he said. 

Instantly he burst out laughing at the look on my face, reached down, grabbed and shook my hand some more and said "AWWWW I'm just joshing with you, of course we can!"

He conceded after the win that the biggest take-away is that his government needs to do a better job of listening, and I will hold them to that. There are a number of issues that I covered during the election that may not matter to MSM, but do to my audience.

I would ask Premier Pallister about construction contract corruption strangling Manitoba-based trades, and why accountability for the engineering profession has deteriorated under the revised Act to the point they act like a protection racket. And more:

* Will he curtail the WRHA continuing to pump out 2 million "harm reduction" needles for meth addicts with no responsibility to deal with the impact of discarded used rigs in the community? What about the meth detox unit proposal of Morberg House that has so much support from politicians of all stripes, including two members of his own caucus?

* Will loopholes in the candidate disclosure law (ie Garnishment Orders, and by the way the list is up to 4 NDP'ers now) be closed? 

* And not that it was an election issue, but the antique City of Winnipeg Act is a problem every week at City Hall - if there's changes to come, your voice needs to be heard.

Those are on the kitchen table, so to speak, of my audience.
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Third NDP Candidate Added To "Wage Garnisheed To Pay Overdue Court Fine" List

Based on what we know thus far from the public record, either 
A) Highway Traffic Act tickets and penalties are priced too high, or B) NDP candidates aren't diligent about obligations to the courts.

Considering the combined wage of the first two NDP candidates identified in last week's story were earning over $100,000 at the University of Winnipeg (Wab Kinew in 2015) and over $94,000 as a Member of the Legislature (Nahanni Fontaine in 2017), pleading poverty seems an unlikely option.

I have learned the NDP Leader and his Deputy Leader aren't alone in the category of NDP candidates who had a garnishee order executed to satisfy overdue Provincial Court fines. 

And since Southdale hopeful Karen Myshkowsky was a school teacher in the Louis Riel School Division at the time, it seems unlikely that her wage was an issue in affording to pay the ticket, before the sheriff visited her employer with a Notice of Garnishment. 

Myshkowsky is a first-time campaigner set up in a former Liquor Mart in the constituency. She started full-time at Glenlawn Collegiate with high risk and special needs students in January 2015, after a couple of years as an on-call substitute. Before the end of the year, $343.80 had been redirected from her December paycheque.  And it wasn't the last time, either. 

In March of 2018, another Certificate of Default was entered, and the Sheriff made sure the school division coughed up an even higher fine - $439.00 - off Myshkowsky's teacher's wages to the courts. 

Like Kinew, Myshkowsky was a private citizen employed in the education field, both times her wages were seized by the court. 

Like Fontaine in St. Johns, the garnishment of the NDP candidate in Southdale was apparently not previously reported in the media or self-disclosed. Voters would have no idea. Last week I raised the Fontaine matter with Liberal leader Dougald Lamont and asked if Bill 240 should include the public's  right to know if at the very least, elected officials (as Fontaine was) seeking re-election, went offside with the courts. 

His answer seems to encompass the Myshkowsky case too, saying a political party should be upfront about these issues (assuming their vetting process even looks for garnishment orders involving candidates). 

"I think offences against democracy should be considered just as much as other kinds of offences especially when you are talking about people who are politicians."  Manitoba Liberal leader Dougald Lamont

(Lamont also slid in that Brian Pallister kept having "bozo explosions" from within the PC Caucus, refering to last week's discovery that MLA Rick Wowchuk was allowed to run for re-election after complaints of problematic behaviors towards staff.) 

Dougald Lamont fires an answer back at CTV's Jeff Keele

When I investigated that maybe new disclosure laws for candidates didn't go quite far enough, people hadn't thought about it at all. Their thinking mostly stopped at how the legislation was largely designed by the PC government to embarass Wab Kinew. But when I gave the example of voters in St. Johns not being told the wages of their MLA were garnisheed to pay a court fine - and it had to sink in a bit - Lamont echoed the feedback I got from readers: 

"Ya, I think it's in the public interest". 

It isn't known right now if there are even more candidates in the Manitoba election, for the NDP or for other parties, whose employer got a visit from the Sheriff. 
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The Manitoba NDP is running at least 3 (professionally-paid) candidates who forced the sheriff's office to serve legal notice on their employer to collect an outstanding court fine. How did that escape the attention of the mainstream media in Winnipeg? 

Or as Lamont put it "Who's going to be the watchdog?" 

Well... the Myshkowsky candidacy has another controversy in play that more directly points to the media and its selective approach to applying the microscope to candidates. 

In 2014, the Gord Steeves campaign for mayor of Winnipeg was KO'd after the MSM insisted he account for comments his wife had made - years before on Facebook - about drunken aboriginal panhandlers downtown making her feel unsafe. When those comments were originally posted, one of the people who endorsed those views was the husband of Myshkowsky. 

"I  love your post" he wrote, a post so controversial one local outlet said it "derailed her husband's campaign". 

Why wasn't the NDP candidate in Southdale grilled and hounded for her spouses comments the way a PC-affiliated mayoral candidate was? Was she asked about it even once?

Surely, not a double standard from MSM.

(It should be noted that less than a year ago Global News actually asked Jay Myshkowsky about this when he ran for school trustee in LRSD Ward 4 - and he apologized.) 
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Wab Kinew NDP Election Strategy Includes Boycott Of Two Women Journalists

On a day when the Manitoba NDP could have crowed loud and long about the Pallister PC's re-upping on an MLA who cracked unwanted juvenile 'beaver' jokes to his constituency assistant, party leader Wab Kinew took the wind out of his party's sails before the evening newscasts with a new set of 'woman problems'. The day started with reports that Progressive Conservative MLA Rick Wowchuk, running for re-election in Swan River, had violated Manitoba Legislative Assembly workplace policy 5 times, including showing a former constituency assistant a picture of naked women on his cellphone in 2016. 

“I unfortunately made comments and shared an email that caused offence,” Wowchuk said in his statement. “I deeply regret doing so and I have taken full responsibility for my actions." He added he found the workplace sensitivity training he was required to attend, "extremely valuable". 

Despite his transgressions, and the long list of complaints that didn't register as technical breaches of the workplace protocols about sexism and harassment, Brian Pallister signed his nomination papers. 

But even as that sordid story emerged Thursday morning, Kinew had already greased the skids underneath his party with his not-an-ultimatum to a town hall on environmental issues scheduled for the evening. And the target of his ire, Winnipeg Free Press columnist Shannon Sampert made sure everyone knew the score.  

"Wab Kinew won't participate on tonight panel on the environment if I am a moderator so I got asked to step down" she told everyone on Twitter at noon. "I guess he didn't like my columns." 

Sampert, a retired political science professor at the University of Winnipeg, was one of 3 moderators for the Hotel Fort Garry event and was replaced by Molly McCracken of the "non-partisan" Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The west end activist has held many NDP-connected jobs this century, including with the Selinger government as a Health Policy analyst.

It quicky emerged that Sampert wasn't the first woman that Kinew refused to be questioned by.

APTN news host Melissa Ridgen piped up that Kinew had pulled the same stunt over a planned sit-down TV interview.

"Wab Kinew also wouldn't do a sit-down interview with APTN National News this summer unless we guaranteed it was a man asking the questions. 

Now he refused to attend an environmental forum unless the female moderator was removed." 

Both Sampert and Ridgen have been pointed critics of Kinew's nuanced denial he had assaulted then-spouse Tara Hart in 2003, and have assailed his attempt to straddle the line on whether victims of domestic violence are to be believed, or just those who don't name him as their abuser. 

Given that a police report was filed and 2 charges were laid against Kinew- and then dropped without Hart's knowledge - he has never been able to shake the controversy.

Sampert has roasted Kinew and the NDP for various offensive attitudes and behaviors towards women staffers and party members, including the antics of "Minister Tickles" Stan Struthers and she called the party a dumpster fire in a 2018 column entitled "Women deserve better than the current NDP."

Sampert has now set her Twitter account to private. By the time she did, there was already significant backlash online towards Kinew - and to the organizers of the panel including the Green Action Centre, Bike Winnipeg and the Manitoba Public Health Association for bending to his demands.

A Free Press report stated, 

"NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Eric Reder, one of the forum’s organizers with the Wilderness Committee, acknowledged there were conversations between the party and organizers about her role." 

"The decision is up to the organizer as to who they want to host their event," Kinew said 

Reder said it was "unfortunate" the organization had to decide on the event day to ask Sampert to step down ... "It’s crucial that the candidates that are vying to lead the province speak about the environment and the climate crisis in public as much as possible, so when an issue arose... we had to make a decision (Thursday) morning."

Sampert told the newspaper "I am stunned by this ... This is payback for my column on his domestic violence history and his misogyny, and clearly, he still has a problem with women."

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Kinew decided he was going to pick and choose which women journalists he would take questions from during the election, which a well-known University academic called "no surprise to those of us who have followed his career".

"Kinew objected to Ridgen conducting the interview, likely for the same reasons he objected to Sampert: both journalists had done superb, highly critical pieces on Kinew's history of violence, misogyny, and sexism." he wrote in a social media dialogue involving Ridgen. 

"Kinew's demand to control the media displays a nasty streak of authoritarianism, which comes as no surprise to those of us who have followed his career (and observed him at close quarters during his time as -- and this still sticks in my craw -- university administrator, a position created for him by his patron Lloyd Axworthy and for which he was unqualified)."  

He added "but there is enough blame left over for the eco-forum organizers who should have told Kinew to go f*ck himself and that the forum would go ahead with or without him."

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CBC Radio managed to completely dodge the controversy on Friday morning while interviewing Kinew on-air and also in getting a comment from Reder. 

Not only did CBC earn an F to start the new j-school year, they earned an extra F for avoiding the issue DESPITE having also spoken with Sampert beforehand. 

CBC knew they were favouring their former newsroom colleague by giving him the softball treatment. Sampert had told them her side:

"Kinew apparently said it was a decision made by the committee and not because of him... I was told Wab wouldn't appear if I was moderator and they needed three parties to be there so they wanted me to step down."

A recent Probe Research poll found an astonishing lack of confidence in Kinew, even with his own Party supporters: A fifth said assault allegations made them lose confidence in him, with it doubling to 41 per cent between 18-34 years of age. Four out of ten poll respondents said allegations of Kinew committing assault (he was convicted of punching a cabbie) prevent them from voting NDP. 

Now FN and eco-voters - whose journalists he shunned - may well be revising the prospects of their own support for Kinew.

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More election coverage still to come:

- Video of Liberal leader Dougald Lamont commenting about Nahanni Fontaine's undisclosed court garnishee and Pallister's caucus bad boys 

- Wab Kinew meth policy drops the (used needle) ball 

- Two PC candidates agree with Marion Willis and Morberg House, that 800 Adele should be looked at a drug detox facility despite a contract dispute with the building owners and a pending court case against the government.

This is the only independent election coverage in Manitoba - going to press conferences and town halls, following up on tips, asking questions... you can help keep it going with the expenses by becoming a donor! 

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NDP MLA Wages Seized For Unpaid Court Fine, Should Disclosure To Voters Be Required?

Heading towards the Manitoba election, a government backbencher brought forward Bill 240, the Elections Amendment Act. 

Winnipeg Police Chief Smyth laughs it up with Danny's NDP Angels, 
(R-L) Wab Kinew, Point Douglas MLA Bernadette Smith, Smyth, Nahanni Fontaine

Sarah Guillemard, seeking re-election in Fort Richmond, sponsored the legislation which now requires candidates to reveal any convictions they've had under the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drug and Substances Act and the Income Tax Act.

It was characterized by the Progressive Conservative caucus as an important tool to ensure "candidate transparency". 

Eight candidates have disclosed criminal convictions - 4 New Democrats, 3 Green Party candidates and one from Manitoba First. Candidates who don't disclose could face a fine of up to $10,000 and a jail sentence of up to a year.

The Free Press reported, "The offences range from non-violent civil disobedience and shoplifting to impaired driving and assault. The most recent conviction dates back 15 years while another happened more than 50 years ago."  

The description in the former case is of NDP leader Wab Kinew, who has prior convictions from about 15 years ago for an assault and a DUI. He also disclosed 2 breaches of court orders from that period, all of which have been pardoned.

"These were serious mistakes made years ago, for which they have all taken responsibility," NDP spokeswoman Emily Coutts said in an email statement.  

There are other well-discussed issues that have dogged Kinew that did not fall under the requirements for disclosure, including a domestic violence charge that was dropped without knowledge of his then-spouse. 

There's another matter only vaguely remembered by members of the press corps as coming up. 

My archived notes indicate it was revealed in an 'anonymous' circular when Kinew ran for the NDP leadership against longtime MLA Steve Ashton.  

On Feb 19, 2015, a Certificate of Default for a Provincial Court fine was issued against an employee of the University of Winnipeg named Wabanakwut Kinew, for $556.50 plus $50 costs. Why? In October 2014, Kinew received a speeding ticket that was unpaid. 

According to CTV, Kinew said he "found out about the ticket through an email and didn't realize it was legitimate."

A Notice of Garnishment to satisfy the Creditor, Her Majesty the Queen in the right of the Province of Manitoba, was issued. 

This resulted in a cheque in the amount of $606.50 cents being delivered to the Minister of Finance on March 31, 2015.

Kinew subsequently was elected an MLA and is a candidate in the provincial election. Similarly, in 2011 a Winnipeg City Councilor who later was elected a Progressive Conservative MLA, was the target of a Garnishment Order. But that story has a slight twist.

Scott Fielding was dinged to the tune of $863.25 plus $50 costs. Fielding became an MLA and a cabinet member in the Pallister government, now running for re-election in Kirkfield Park. 

The order was terminated a week later apparently due to a misunderstanding, no wages were seized, and Fielding paid the fine promptly afterwards. 

I have discovered that Kinew was not the only NDP candidate to have wages seized for failing to pay a provincial court fine. 

It could be said, that in his case, Kinew was not serving in public life, and that sometimes, these things can happen. Maybe it was careless but still a simple private matter, was suggested to me, and not Bill 240-worthy. But at least, when his wages were seized in 2015 he wasn't an NDP MLA occupying a seat in the Legislature.  

Chief Danny Smyth flanked by NDP Pt. Douglas rep Bernadette Smith
and St. Johns incumbent Nahanni Fontaine

On October 31st 2017, a Certificate of Default was issued for a Provincial Court speeding fine. 

"HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN THE RIGHT OF THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA" was owed $243.80, with $50 costs tacked on. Based on the evidence - the name and the employer receiving the Garnishee Notice - the debtor in 2017 subject to the Order was the same Nahanni Fontaine who was the  MLA for St. Johns constituency at the time, at a salary of $94,513.

A Notice of Garnishment was issued directing her employer, the Government of Manitoba, to withhold the requisite amount of the taxpayer funded MLA salary of Nahanni Fontaine. This Halloween trick-or-treat resulted in a cheque in the amount of $293.80 cents being delivered to the Minister of Finance on January 15, 2018. 

Fontaine, like Kinew, is seeking re-election. Unlike Kinew, the court action attaching her MLA paycheque was never reported in the media. 

Now it may be, that a person could take the position that a previous Garnishment Order from the Crown involving a private citizen (ie while employed at the U of W), does not reach a threshhold of disclosure being in the public interest. 

Fontaine (in blue) gazes at the biggest 'boy in blue', Danny Smyth

However, in this case the debtor is a sitting MLA who has a sworn duty to uphold provincial acts and regulations. 

"Canadians are required to take an Oath of Allegiance before occupying a military, police, judicial or governmental post (such as MLA) as they are charged with creating or administering the law. According to Wikipedia, it was implemented to secure the supremacy of the reigning monarch of Canada, the giving of faithfulness to whom is a manifestation of a key responsibility central to the Canadian system of government."

I've been asking: What if an elected lawmaker defies a court ordered fine for violating a provincial law. Is that something the public has a right to know?

EDIT: (From a reader) "Good analysis. One fact missing, though, is that she was also the NDP justice critic at the time of the unpaid fine and subsequent garnishment."

It was pointed out that would be added costs to taxpayers beyond the $50 surcharge included in the garnishment of Fontaine's wage. 

• The Sheriff serving the notice and filing an affadavit was paid on the public dime. (Maybe the $50 covered that).
• So was the payroll officials who had to redirect her pay to the courts. (The $50 was towards the court's costs, not the government's, so ...) 
• The court officials who had to administrate the payment and reflect it on the public record, were also paid by the taxpayer. 
• By that point $50 to cover costs seems stretched a little thin. 

I also asked some of my readers what message it might send constituents and all voters when an elected member of the Assembly failed to pay a Provincial Court offence fine on time without good reason (ie incapacitating illness, mail strike, etc)? 

The answers were swift and categorical - a wrong message. 

"If their MLA doesn't respect the courts, why should they?"

"Most courts will accept payment arrangements so I suspect these folks felt such entitlement that they were above mere mortals."

"MLA's make $94,000 a year, why wouldn't she pay the fine?"

I asked the Parties if they would contemplate an amendment to the Act to require that garnishee orders filed against an MLA (for instance Fontaine, but not Kinew) be disclosed if they run for election again?  I was not asking about garnishments sought in the course of civil claims, only those involving the Courts seeking redress. At time of publication, none had responded.

It seems to me that along with other basic information a voter wants to know about a candidate, such as do they live in the constituency, and the obligated disclosures under Bill 240, an elected MLA like Fontaine forcing the Crown to chase them to pay a court-ordered fine surpasses the threshold for the public's right to know. 

Without disclosure of a Garnishment Order - which at least informs voters and allows them to question the candidate - there is no step where a candidate like Fontaine would have taken responsibility for stiffing the Crown - and adding expense to taxpayers to have it collected.

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Reyes Working New Riding To Keep Legislature Seat; Weekend Roundup Of Pronouncements

Coming from a military and small business background, Jon Reyes says he's used to putting in the hard work and long hours needed in seeking re-election to the Manitoba Legislature, as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Waverley. 

I caught up to Reyes at the opening of his campaign office and in this clip, see his explanation about the make-up of the new riding and how his family experience as immigrants helps him understand the challenges that new Canadians in his riding are dealing with. 

Among election announcements this weekend:

- Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont addressed economic issues as part of a 10 year strategic infrastructure plan "to prioritize urgent and high-return-on-investment infrastructure projects. The party promised to invest on average $1.6-billion per year for ten years. 

"This $16 billion investment would see a return of almost $21 billion to Manitoba during that time frame." 

Included will be a study of rail relocation / rationalization for the City of Winnipeg, and costs related to linking it with CentrePort, as well as the possibility of creating a commuter / light rail system on the vacated tracks. The study should cost an estimated $3-million. 

Seeking to expand it's presence in the Assembly beyond the Party status minimum of 4 seats, the Liberals "will also apply previously announced “buy local” and local procurement policies to the projects and ensure there is a level playing field so local companies can apply."

- The New Democratic Party attacked PC proposals that focused largely on women's health issues and services, claiming that Premier Brian Pallister "Refused to let the Health Minister answer questions about women’s reproductive health for three years" while closing programs for lactating mothers, mature women, and cutting funding to Cancer Care Manitoba

- Reye's campaign office roommate Sarah Guillemard said a re-elected PC government "will invest $3.4 million per year to implement initiatives that help all Manitobans". 

The promises include enhanced mental health and specialized trauma counselling, establishing a six seat Bachelor of Midwifery program at the University of  Manitoba, and reducing wait times "for Manitobans seeking treatment for eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating."

- Not in the realm of an announcement, but a first-time Green Party candidate messaged me and related the following: 

"You know what's a very interesting thing ... hearing disaffected conservative voters tell me they're looking for options and voting Green this year." 

Is Green going to be the new "parked my vote" space in 2019?

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I have more unique breaking news coming up from the Manitoba election

No one else has the experience I have to dig out news and issues in Winnipeg!

Last week we made waves with reports about construction trade contract corruption squeezing Manitoba-based operations.

We are also bringing exclusive news about the growing momentum to get the next government to put the vacated care facility at 800 Adele back on the agenda to serve Manitobans as a meth detox and education hub.

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