Daudrich decision dangerous for PCs

“Mr. Daudrich was subject to certain conditions during the vetting process, of which he was aware. After repeated advisement those conditions were not met, his application was not entitled to proceed. Mr. Daudrich was informed on Wednesday that he was no longer considered a potential PC candidate in the Turtle Mountain riding.”

— Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba president Peter Smith

In its decision to give the bum’s rush to would-be Turtle Mountain candidate Wally Daudrich this week, the Tories are playing with fire.

Certainly the optics of throwing Daudrich out on his ear less than two weeks before a contested nomination meeting was set to take place — and well after the man has been spending his time and money signing up new party members for the chance to represent Turtle Mountain voters — don’t look particularly good.

On Wednesday afternoon, the PCs sent out an email to news media stating that Daudrich would “not be permitted to seek the party’s nomination in Turtle Mountain.” The brief statement did not elaborate on why the decision was made to bar his candidacy.

Reached by phone on Thursday, Daudrich said he was shocked at the decision but not surprised that the party would prevent him from running under the PC banner.

Since his December announcement that he would seek the party’s nomination here in Westman, he had been actively campaigning and selling memberships in the riding.

He also said that he had gone through two rounds of vetting and had sold “hundreds” of memberships for the party.

“They looked at the votes and they said, ‘We can’t possibly let Wally win, so we’re gonna disqualify him because the vote is next Saturday,’” he told the Sun.

For his part he says he has “no idea” why he was barred from pursuing the Turtle Mountain nomination.

“I was told at the beginning that I have a clear path to run, that I should go through the vetting process. I did all of that and I’ve been working hard for six months and now I’m told I can’t run.”

And with the nomination period now closed, Two Borders councillor Mark Custance has become the sole remaining candidate, and will no doubt be acclaimed at the party’s nomination meet in Boissevain on June 13.

This situation marks the third time that Daudrich has come up empty in his bid to get elected as a member of the Progressive Conservatives.

In the spring of 2025, Daudrich narrowly lost the PC leadership race to Obby Khan, even though the raw vote split actually favoured the hard-line conservative populist by 53 votes. The weighted point system that the party used, where each constituency was allowed a specific point total, ultimately gave Khan the win with 50.4 per cent of the points.

Shortly thereafter, Daudrich announced that he wanted to run “uncontested” in the Spruce Woods byelection that fall, saying that he had already been vetted by the party, and that he was “ready to run as a candidate.” The only thing holding him back, he said, was having the new Tory leader give him the thumbs up.

As we said at the time, Khan made the right call in denying the former leadership candidate an uncontested run for Spruce Woods — it was an unreasonable and undemocratic demand.

Ultimately, Daudrich did not put his name forward for Spruce Woods.

But in seeking to replace outgoing MLA Doyle Piwniuk in Turtle Mountain, Daudrich seemed to follow the official candidates’ playbook without complaint, taking time away from his hotel and ecotourism operation in Churchill to make the rounds here in western Manitoba.

For a person who was obviously green-lit by the party to run for the Tory leadership, it’s worth asking why he hit a party brick wall when running for the nomination in a small rural riding well outside Fortress Winnipeg.

The PC president’s explanation regarding the party’s reasoning for preventing his candidacy seems less than, well, candid.

Aside from the fact that the Tories are cutting loose a cash cow — if he did indeed sign up hundreds of new members — the party decision to do so is a dangerous one.

This is the same leadership candidate who warned of a schism within the party if it refused to focus more on conservative values than progressive ones. With Khan’s win last year, the so-called moderate voices within the party won out on a technicality.

Though Daudrich has previously promised that he would not run under any other party banner, he’s under no obligation to stick to that pledge. And as he doesn’t seem interested in keeping a low profile anytime soon, that schism within the party could yet loom large.

That’s the problem when you play with fire — often get you burned.

» Matt Goerzen, editor