KERRY NATION: Pallister’s best qualities also his worst

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2021 (1494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans were surprised on Tuesday when news broke that Premier Brian Pallister advised his party’s executive his intention not to run in the next provincial election and that, as a result, he would be stepping down as both an MLA and premier as soon as the Tories select a new leader.

The nature of the parliamentary system is that commonly timelines are uncertain — the leader is selected by the party membership and not directly by voters, so this requires the party to hold a leadership campaign. As the Tory executive is required to determine those dates and the process, the dates are undetermined as of this writing. It will be formalized shortly, one suspects.

Said Pallister on Tuesday: “After almost 10 years as leader of our party and more than five years as our province’s premier, I believe that now is the time for a new leader and a premier to take our province forward.”

Pallister has been leader since 2012, premier since 2016, and has led the Tories to two consecutive historic majorities. He also replenished the Tory war chest.

To be fair, Pallister’s best assets — competitiveness, stubbornness and confidence — were also his worst features.

Not to bash political correctness, but Pallister was born during a time that is very much at odds with the current “politically correct/cancel culture/always offended” atmosphere.

It was not so long ago that issues like choice, same-sex marriage and listening and learning from the lived experience of Indigenous Canadians were not part and parcel of being a premier. This is not to comment on the importance of these issues, but to understand the role of premier, any leader, has evolved with the times. Some people are better at changing than others.

Manitoba needed Pallister’s drive, ambition and stubbornness to make the tough financial decisions the previous NDP government simply couldn’t or wouldn’t make. He inherited a fiscal mess after 17 year of debt, decay and decline. It was never going to be easy or popular to straighten the ship. He was doing just that … and then COVID struck.

A few short months before the global pandemic struck, Manitobans finally reached the promised balanced budget. It was a tremendous albeit difficult achievement, and we all contributed to it.

Unfortunately, one of Pallister’s key foci — financial efficiency — became one of his downfalls.

Voters cynically began to question every decision from the perspective of whether any policy was about the betterment of Manitobans, or merely another money move. Was a bill about education or money? About health care or money? About families or money?

When you get labelled in such a manner, it is extremely difficult to change this public perception. It was a millstone around Pallister’s neck.

It is imperative to push beyond the public perceptions. Consider, for a moment, how difficult it would be to cobble together historic Tory majorities.

How do you keep together a pro-choice, pro-same sex, pro-vaccine business Tory and an anti-vaccine, highly socially conservative, evangelical Tory? It would be very challenging indeed to build a tent big enough to accommodate both people.

COVID brought out the authoritarian elements of Pallister’s personality while pushing many of his cabinet colleagues to the sidelines. Concurrently, the situation elevated a heretofore unknown chief medical officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, to the media spotlight. Unlike most political decisions, COVID made policies life or death.

Pallister did a sterling job stewarding the financial future of Manitoba, and I wish him the very best in his future endeavours. I thank him for his service to our province. As we near the end of this pandemic, it is appropriate to seek a new premier who will guide us into the post-COVID future. Who will that new premier be? That’s a column for another week.