Manitoba Progressive Conservatives to elect new leader in April 2025
Manitoba Progressive Conservatives will have to wait another year before electing a new leader to replace former premier Heather Stefanson.
The party, which had been contemplating a leadership race this fall, announced Tuesday that it has scheduled the leadership vote for April 26 of next year.
Wayne Ewasko, who has been serving as interim leader since Stefanson stepped down in January, said the extra time will let the party prepare.
"I think it definitely gives more time for us to sign up members and to get more Manitobans involved," Ewasko told reporters.
The Tories were in office for seven years before losing last October's provincial election to the NDP. Stefanson announced her plan to resign on election night, but stayed on until January, when the party sorted out new rules for leadership races.
The extra time may also give the party more time to replenish its coffers.
Documents filed with Elections Manitoba show the Tories raised less money than the NDP in the election campaign.
The NDP garnered just over $971,000 in contributions, fundraising and other income en route to victory. That was roughly $307,000 more than what the Tories raised.
The NDP also outspent opponents, with $1.8 million in expenses and transfers to candidates compared with $1.5 million for the Tories.
Both parties posted deficits for the campaign of more than $850,000.
The NDP's better fundraising was to be expected, one political analyst said, given the Tories had trailed in opinion polls for two years before the election.
"The anticipation for a couple of years that (the NDP) was headed to victory based partly on anger toward the PCs helped with the recruitment of members and the appeals to donors," Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said.
For next year's leadership contest, the Tories are aiming to avoid the controversy that flared up when Stefanson narrowly won the leadership in the fall of 2021.
There was a last-minute surge in party memberships and many members complained they did not receive mail-in ballots in time to vote. An internal review of that race's problems pointed to other issues, including the possibility that the party's one-member, one-vote system left it open to a takeover from single-interest outsiders.
The new leadership rules will allow for electronic voting as well as the traditional mail-in ballots, although the final decision will rest with a committee governing the contest.
The new rules continue to allow every Tory member to vote, but they also incorporate a point system to limit the weight of constituencies with big membership numbers. The aim is to ensure that the leadership race cannot be decided by a flood of new members in one or two constituencies.
While the Tory leadership race is still months away from starting, some Tories have signalled they could throw their hat in the ring.
Ewasko would not rule out a run Tuesday. Former cabinet minister Kevin Klein, who lost his seat in last year's election, has said he is considering a run. Obby Khan, a former cabinet minister who is now the party's finance critic, has also hinted he may take a run at the party helm.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.