KERRY NATION: Lingering ‘Project Mayhem’ questions shadow stubborn premier

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/08/2021 (1501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it rains, it pours, or so the adage goes, although residents of southwestern Manitoba must wonder if the rains will ever come this year. It may be an agonizing segue to suggest it has been raining for quite some time on Premier Brian Pallister and his government who seem to be careening from public relations disaster to disaster.

The government of Manitoba has rarely appeared to be so much of an escape room as it does these days.

To be fair, (and what am I if not fair?), many of the PR challenges have come as a result of the global battle against COVID. Pallister certainly cannot be blamed for this pandemic, nor can he be blamed for many of the harsh restrictions or how many Manitobans (few but loud) have skeptically responded to vaccines.

While politicians are easy targets for scorn, we elected them and are responsible for who we put into the Premier’s office. To be fair, it’s daunting to consider that Premier Wab Kinew would have done a better job managing this crisis.

However, Pallister’s biggest assets are also his biggest enemies – self-confidence, combativeness and stubbornness.

Clearly, he has enjoyed remarkable success in sports, business and politics. Has he peaked? Given the current state of affairs and his weak poll numbers, it’s tough to argue that he hasn’t.

In recent weeks we have discovered that Pallister orchestrated an investigation into Wab Kinew, performed by a private investigator. This investigation, (which I will informally term Project Mayhem), occurred prior to the 2019 provincial election. Using Kinew’s book as base material, the investigator apparently dug up hidden information about Kinew’s past.

Said Pallister in a press conference this week: “When we had information brought to us about a criminal record that the NDP had covered up, and that their leadership candidate Wab Kinew had covered it up. We didn’t take it at face value.”

When did opposition research become such a shocking development? (I ask this firmly tongue-in-cheek.) There is nothing new here. Richard Nixon infamously kept an enemies list. They all do…even the ones who say they don’t.

The hand-bag clutching media and academics who tut-tut at such things appear to be a little too cute by half. The role of the media is, in many respects, to investigate public officials. Would the allegations of inappropriate behavior by politicians from Bill Clinton to Andrew Cuomo have been brought to light if not for an aggressive media?

Should Pallister have apologized for the investigation? In my opinion, the answer is “it depends.”

There are meaningful questions about who paid the investigator and where Project Mayhem was run out of.

If the Tories as a party paid for it and it was run out of their headquarters without any government or taxpayer-funded staff involved, then it’s not really an issue. On the other hand, if it was funded with public money and managed out of the Premier’s office, then that is an abuse of taxpayer funds.

To the best of our knowledge, the investigation was funded by the PC Party, but there are questions about who ran it. These questions should be answered fully.

Similarly, Pallister has been remarkably defiant in the face of an angry public regarding his comments about the history of Indigenous Manitobans and settlers. This is where his stubbornness doesn’t serve him well. Be stubborn in the positive work of building a better Manitoba, but don’t be afraid to apologize if your words hurt people. This is what we should teach our children and perhaps Pallister has forgotten some of those lessons.

I suspect the premier is surrounded by an ever-shrinking coterie of yes-men and women whose fortunes are dependent upon proximity to the Sun King. This is true of every government and will never change. I hope Pallister expands his coterie before it’s too late.