Shelly Glover headed to court Thursday over PC leadership vote

WINNIPEG -

Shelly Glover’s legal team is heading to court with the aim of overturning the PC leadership vote and securing a new one.

Her motion to declare the results invalid is set for 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Legal and political experts say it’s a long shot but Glover’s lawyer Dave Hill says there is precedent on their side, a 2019 case he successfully argued.

“I’m simply doing in the provincial context what I had already done in the municipal context,” said Hill.

Heather Stefanson, now premier, defeated Glover on Saturday by 363 votes.

In court documents Glover alleged there were substantial irregularities with the close leadership vote count.

Back in 2019, a court ordered a new vote to be held for a school trustee position in the Sunrise School division. A judge determined 66 people improperly voted, in a race won by just 31 votes. The judge ruled there was a breach of a statutory provision. Dave Hill was the applicant’s lawyer in that case.

“My client was able to establish substantial irregularities that affected the result and a new election was called for,” said Hill.

Law professor Gerard Kennedy says there is a difference between a municipal election and a political party process.

“The internal affairs of a political party tend to result in the court taking a much more hands-off approach.” said Kennedy.

Adjunct political professor Chris Adams agrees, and said the only way he sees a court getting into something like this is if election financing laws were broken.

“Other than that I don’t see any way the courts would weigh into a political party’s process,” said Adams.

Both Adams and Kennedy said it would be hard to imagine a judge overruling the Lieutenant Governor.

“Shelly Glover says she is the premier. Shelly Glover is not the premier,” said Kennedy. “The Lieutenant Governor swore in Heather Stefanson. Heather Stefanson is the premier.”

None of the allegations have been tested in court.