Yet another black eye for Manitoba Tories

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/01/2025 (245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At a time when the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party is trying to turn the page on its past mistakes, leadership candidate Wally Daudrich is reviving old wounds.

His campaign’s Facebook page recently reposted a message from another Facebook user that quoted a passage from a Daudrich campaign newsletter that condemned antisemitism and attacks on Jews. This sentence was added at the end of the post: “We must stop Muslim Obby Khan from becoming the Conservative leader.”

Khan is Daudrich’s sole opponent in the PC leadership race. The Fort Whyte MLA is a former Winnipeg Blue Bomber, a successful business owner and former cabinet minister in the Stefanson government. He is also a Muslim.

Daudrich’s campaign says the post, with its anti-Muslim, anti-Khan message, was reposted by a staff member who did not notice the wording at the end. It says the post was taken down as soon as it was brought to the team’s attention.

That explanation is not good enough for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, which has demanded that Daudrich publicly apologize for the remark — something that has not happened so far, at least not by press time Wednesday.

Beyond that, the PC Party leadership election committee has asked Daudrich to confirm his commitment to the principle “that membership and participation in the party is open to Manitobans regardless of their religion,” but he hasn’t done that either.

For his part, Khan says that “an apology must be made and that that type of language must be disavowed and condemned,” even if was an accident.

This incident is yet another black eye for Manitoba Tories, who are still trying to shed the stench from their October 2023 election campaign, which was marred by racism and intolerance. Daudrich’s failure to immediately distance himself from the anti-Muslim remarks and to apologize on behalf of his campaign team will cause many Manitobans to suspect the remarks reflect his own opinions and biases.

That, in turn, will cause them to question whether the Tory party has learned anything from the 2023 election campaign, and whether the party is really as tolerant, inclusive and welcoming as it claims to be.

It would be much easier for the party to move past this matter if the reposted Facebook message was an isolated incident, but this isn’t the first time Daudrich has said controversial, intolerant things during the current leadership campaign.

He has referred to Manitoba’s education system as “an indoctrination system” and recently said that people from other countries who don’t “respect our laws and our traditions” should be deported.

In November, he refused to disavow a previous Facebook post that posted a video of U.S. assistant health secretary Rachel Levine — a trans woman — and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul sparring over gender-affirming care for minors. He wrote that “I feel very sorry for this man dressed in woman’s clothing … He has been duped by our shallow decadent pop culture. We are experiencing a moral free fall.”

When confronted by reporters regarding the post, he responded that he stands by his comments, and added that “The fact that we are even having this conversation is proof positive that I believe our society has, or parts of our society, is in moral free fall.”

He emphasized that “I’m a conservative with principles … and they include parental rights.”

Those comments are yet another headache for the Tories, who made the so-called “parental rights” issue — which includes anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric, as well as policies in favour of banning certain types of books — a cornerstone of their 2023 provincial election campaign. It suggests that the party is unwilling to admit it was wrong to take such a position at that time and, 16 months later, hasn’t really changed at all.

Despite the clear outcome of the 2023 campaign, which resulted in the Tories being punted onto the opposition benches and left their party deeply in debt, Daudrich insists his socially conservative views resonate with most newcomers and are catching on with voters.

He says that “We have the gentleman to the south. He helped change the mood, but it was quite a fight. And we may end up in a fight ourselves here in Manitoba, in Canada, as well. But I’m willing to start that fight.”

It is far from clear as to whether the majority of PC Party members, who each have a vote in the leadership contest, will vote to give him that chance. It is even less convincing that he deserves the opportunity.

The winner of the contest will be announced on April 26.