Annual state of the province speech in Manitoba takes on election campaign tone
Annual state of the province speech in Manitoba takes on election campaign tone
WINNIPEG -
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson delivered her annual state of the province speech Thursday with a bit more partisan messaging than usual.
The annual speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce traditionally involves a premier going over their accomplishments of the past year and focusing on economic development before a business crowd.
Stefanson touched on those, but also said the provincial election slated for next October will be a choice between two very different visions for Manitoba on issues such as crime.
"A decision between a party that has no plan to keep your family safer at home or at work, or a team with a clearly defined plan to reduce crime," Stefanson told the roughly 1,000 people in attendance.
Stefanson also accused the Opposition New Democrats of favouring tax hikes, the defunding of police and high debt loads at Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro.
She also said a NDP government would lead to longer wait times for surgeries because the NDP opposes using private health-care providers to cut waiting lists.
Stefanson later told reporters she felt the need to include some partisan contrasts.
"I think that it's time to show Manitobans the difference between the Opposition NDP and ourselves. I think maybe that message isn't getting out there enough."
NDP Leader Wab Kinew said Stefanson needs to look elsewhere to assess blame.
"The speech we heard today acknowledged that there is a crisis in health care, with crime, with the cost of living," Kinew said. "And all this has happened under (former premier) Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson's watch."
Kinew also denied the accusations levelled against his party. He said it's not true, for example, that the NDP favours defunding police.
"The police have an important role to play," he said, while adding that more money for housing and other services could help address the root causes of crime.
Stefanson took over the Progressive Conservative leadership in the fall of 2021, and the Tories have continued to lag behind the NDP in opinion polls.
The Tories won two consecutive majority governments, but saw their poll numbers drop after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Manitoba has recorded the second-highest per capita COVID-related death rate among provinces, data compiled by the federal government says.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2022.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
After raising interest rates eight consecutive times, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem told an audience in Quebec City on Tuesday that inflation is showing signs of 'turning the corner' and that the coming year 'will be different.'
Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week's devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.
Balloons and drones were among 768 reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to Winnipeg-based researcher Chris Rutkowski, who also found that eight per cent of all cases remained unexplained.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
Canadians now believe they need $1.7 million in savings in order to retire, a 20 per cent increase from 2020, according to a new BMO survey. The eye-watering figure is the largest sum since BMO first started surveying Canadians about their retirement expectations 13 years ago.
Three men who disappeared after planning to rap at a Detroit party were killed by multiple gunshots, police said Tuesday, five days after their bodies were found in a vacant, rat-infested building.
A report from British Columbia's coroner says a prominent anti-vaccine and COVID critic died in 2021 of a drug overdose, although he also tested positive for the illness post-mortem.
A forensic pathologist offered her expert opinion on how Catlin Goodwill’s three-month-old son died suddenly in October 2017, during testimony on the second day of trial.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
A forensic pathologist offered her expert opinion on how Catlin Goodwill’s three-month-old son died suddenly in October 2017, during testimony on the second day of trial.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
Nearly five years after Matthew Staikos was gunned down in Toronto, the family of the tech CEO has renewed a $250,000 reward in the unsolved murder case.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The Tsuut'ina Police Service, which serves a community west of Calgary, says it has spoken with more alleged victims of former Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse and additional charges will be laid against him in the coming days.
The Laurier Macdonald High School in Montreal's Saint-Leonard borough was placed into lockdown Tuesday afternoon due to a threat, but Montreal police say they believe it appears to be unfounded.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
There is a new sign of financial issues with an Ottawa construction company that suddenly closed, leaving customers with unfinished projects unable to recoup their losses.
A former medical student who claims he fatally shot a fellow student in self-defence during a drug deal in Halifax denied Tuesday he planned to kill the man and steal the marijuana he was carrying.
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is appealing for witnesses after an arrest in Stratford sent a 34-year-old man to hospital for treatment of a serious injury.
A passenger plane packed with donations and emergency supplies is set to travel from Vancouver, B.C., to Istanbul on Tuesday, as the death toll from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkiye and Syria surpasses 6,200.
A report from British Columbia's coroner says a prominent anti-vaccine and COVID critic died in 2021 of a drug overdose, although he also tested positive for the illness post-mortem.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Pink sea urchins off the coast of Vancouver Island are expanding into shallower waters, in what researchers say is an indication of how rapidly climate change is affecting ocean life.
Another British Columbia university has taken back the honorary degree it bestowed on retired judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond after an investigation raised doubts about her claims of Indigenous heritage.
