Leaders debate dishonesty

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This article was published 13/09/2011 (5521 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two of the three men vying to be Manitoba’s next premier spent the better part of a two-hour debate in Brandon yesterday morning taking quick, pointed jabs at each other, but neither delivered the knock-out blow Manitobans have been waiting to see in this fall’s election campaign.

NDP Leader Greg Selinger, Progressive Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen and Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard participated in the debate yesterday at the Victoria Inn, which was organized by the Brandon and Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and broadcast live on Winnipeg and Brandon radio.

As they’ve made it their habit so far in the election, McFadyen and Selinger stuck to hammering each other’s credibility.

“It comes down to what you say versus what you do,” Selinger said in setting the morning’s aggressive tone. “You have to look at the record of 15 years (of the PC party) versus what has been said in the last 15 days.”

McFadyen countered quickly, calling Selinger’s campaign a “dishonest” one.

“Sometimes when people are desperate to cling to power, they’re dishonest and Mr. Selinger is being dishonest in this campaign,” he said. “The number of Manitobans lining up to call him dishonest is growing with every passing day.”

The quick pace of the debate allowed each leader to outline their party’s stances on a number of issues, including flood compensation and mitigation, post-secondary tuition, class sizes and the funding of public schools, Manitoba’s municipal infrastructure deficit, the current moratorium on hog barn expansion and the much-maligned Bipole III project.

However, substantive debate on the issues was made somewhat difficult by the fact that Selinger and McFadyen spent much of the debate interrupting each other’s statements.

When Selinger asked McFadyen to promise he wouldn’t privatize Crown corporations like Manitoba Public Insurance, the Tory leader quipped,” If you’re warming up to be an Opposition leader, you’re off to a good start,” to which Selinger shot back, “…and if you want to be premier, you’ll be clear with Manitobans and honest with them about what your position would be.”

The catty back-and-forth between Selinger and McFadyen left little time for Gerrard to jump into the debate fray, with the Liberal leader sitting quiet most times until called on by the forum’s moderator to respond.

He did, however, suggest that the NDP has “very consistently neglected those people that need help the most,” specifically in Winnipeg’s North End.

“Right now, we’ve got an area that has got decay and high levels of violent crime … lack of employment,” he said. “It’s sort of like the city of Detroit and it’s a shame.”

Though he was not even an invited participant in the debate, Green Party of Manitoba Leader James Beddome drew a bit of attention early on with his presence and that of several supporters.

Minutes prior to the debate going live, Beddome plopped down on a chair at the panellists table and refused to leave the stage until he received equal airtime during the broadcast event.

After a brief verbal confrontation with the debate’s organizers, however, Beddome left the stage and was later given five minutes on the microphone to discuss his views on the proposed Bipole III project, which he said his party would abandon altogether.

“We would do a full assessment on what we could do for energy conservation in Manitoba and investigate alternative means of it,” he said.

For his part, McFadyen reiterated his party’s pledge to save Manitobans money by building Bipole III down the east side of the province versus the NDP’s current west-side plan.

Selinger bit back, though, calling the Tories plan “crazy” and suggesting it would face huge opposition from environmentalists and aboriginal groups.

Yesterday’s debate was the first opportunity the three leaders had to square off in the same room since the election campaign officially began on Sept. 6.

» adowd@brandonsun.com