Manitoba Liberal candidate says comments on closing hospitals weren’t serious

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This article was published 31/03/2016 (3493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON, Man. – A Liberal candidate in the Manitoba provincial election who suggested health-care wait times could be cut by closing hospitals abruptly changed his tune Thursday and said his comments were just a publicity stunt.

Billy Moore, one of several last-minute Liberal candidates for the April 19 election, said repeatedly Wednesday and Thursday that the wide availability of hospital emergency rooms encourages people to use them for minor or non-existent ailments.

“People want to get sick even if they’re not sick, because there are hospitals that need to be filled,” he said in an interview Thursday, echoing remarks he made the previous day at a candidates debate.

Moore, who is running in the Brandon West constituency, said he received concerned comments from people. But he initially maintained that two of Winnipeg’s six hospitals should be closed.

Hours later, he said the entire controversy was a ruse and he really supports keeping all hospitals open.

“I only said it … for publicity so people will be apt to listen to me when I speak again,” Moore said.

“I said what I said yesterday for publicity, and we can go from here with reality.”

The New Democrats pounced on Moore’s initial comments.

“The Liberals’ plan to close … hospitals would hurt families here in Brandon and throughout Manitoba,” NDP candidates Drew Caldwell and Linda Ross said in a written statement.

Moore, 76, said he is “a little green” when it comes to politics.

He decided to become a candidate last week and filed his nomination two hours before Tuesday’s deadline. The Liberals, who held one seat when the election was called, had been scrambling to try to fill all 57 slots for the election.

Five candidates have been rejected by Elections Manitoba. One candidate missed the nomination deadline. One other was disqualified for having been an enumerator for Elections Manitoba, the non-partisan agency that governs provincial votes. Three others had improper addresses of supporters on their nomination forms.

The Liberals were filing nominations so close to Tuesday’s deadline, they had no time to fix the problems with the addresses.

Moore, who lives in Portage la Prairie, said he decided to run in Brandon after being offered a choice by the Liberals.

“I was told of the vacancies they had in different ridings, so it was my choice and I chose Brandon West.”

The Liberals have not been a major player in Manitoba politics for more than two decades, but are hoping for a breakthrough. The governing NDP has faced public anger over a 2013 sales tax increase, and opinion polls suggest support for the Liberals has risen as sharply as that for the NDP has dropped.

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Manitoba, said earlier this week the Liberals continue to struggle with organizational challenges and are “not in the same league” as the NDP and Progressive Conservatives.

— By Steve Lambert in Winnipeg