Fatal Attraction
October 4, 2023
As loyal readers might expect, I had some interest in yesterday’s Manitoba provincial election, though admittedly, I wasn’t following it too closely. After all, I’m not living there anymore. I haven’t set foot in that place since my defection nine-plus years ago, and though I’ll never say never, I have no plans to ever do so again.
That said, there are still a number of people there I care about. And I don’t want to see an NDP government anywhere in Canada.
But sadly, ever since Ed Schreyer in the 1970s, the NDP has become the natural governing party in Manitoba. Under their stewardship, Manitobans have been saddled with Manitoba Public Insurance, the one and only auto insurer turned regulator. Complete with a no-fault (read: no coverage) system. They brought in a payroll tax at the same time as they started a jobs fund. A payroll tax that survived four PC majority terms and is still on the books. And a tax-’em-’till-it-hurts, anti-business government controlled by corrupt public-sector unions that has made the province a perpetual welfare state on par with Quebec. During the Gary Doer-Greg Selinger years, four out of every 10 dollars that poured into the provincial treasury came from federal transfer payments.
Manitobans’ fatal attraction to the NDP is not the only reason, but one of the biggest reasons why I pulled up stakes and left the only province and city I had ever called home. Even though the NDP government at the time was on its last legs, I knew there would eventually be another one coming. I just didn’t know when.
However, I didn’t figure it to come any time soon. On the heels of a scandal involving an unpopular PST hike, Selinger was so desperate to cling to the leadership that he ended up decimating his party’s already thin talent pool in the process. Classic scorched-earth mentality. Instead of the captain going down with the ship, this was a case where the captain took down the ship and all crew members aboard.
The party was left scrambling to find a leader. They found one in an ex-rapper, ex-CBC propagandist Wab Kinew. A clown. Hardly premier material. His only redeeming quality was that he wanted the job. Plus, he’s Aboriginal (read: window dressing) and had the advantage of not being connected to the Selinger regime. It was much the same with the PCs after Gary Filmon’s defeat. First was Stuart Murray. Then Hugh McFadyen. Awful leaders. It was the lack of a credible alternative that helped keep the NDP in for four terms.
I figured it would be no different with the Wab Kinew-led NDP. There’s no way even dumb Manitobans would vote for him, I thought. They’ll need another leader before they form government again. Someone credible.
But in a shocking display of stupidity, they did.
And boy, will they pay for it.
The NDP hardly has to resort to hypnosis to liberate Winnipeggers from their money.
The NDP made a clean sweep through Winnipeg. The PCs barely hung on in the premier’s home riding of well-to-do Tuxedo. No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity, yet Winnipeggers always think they can be trendsetters in that regard.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no fan of the Brian Pallister-Heather Stefanson government. Pallister has plenty of blood on his hands from the war he and other premiers declared against their own people. He was the first in the country to bring in those revulsive poison passes. They had unconstitutional border restrictions. He should be extradited from Costa Rica and put on trial as a war criminal. Stefanson was hardly an inspiring replacement. There’s even significant doubt as to the legitimacy of her win over former Conservative MP Shelly Glover in the leadership race.
If I was still living there, I’d have had serious reservations about voting for them. But voting for the NDP to get rid of them is like cutting your arm off at the shoulder to get rid of a wart at the end of your pinky finger.
We’ll fix the health care system, Kinew and the NDP said. The same way they “fixed” the system during their last run. Drowning the system in unionized bureaucrats. No province spent more per capita on health care, yet they got less bang for their buck than any other province in the country. Under Kinew, it will get substantially and painfully worse.
Growing up in Manitoba, it was always fashionable to make fun of Saskatchewan, our neighbors to the west. We may not be Ontario or Alberta, but at least there’s someone lower on the totem pole than we are.
Not any more.
Even when I was still there, Manitobans had long since lost their right to chastise Saskatchewan or anyone else. And as a result of this election, Manitoba cemented its status as the smelly armpit of the nation. Hands down. It’s not even close.
It just makes me even more thankful that I had the courage and conviction to leave that place.
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