A high-profile MLA who used to play for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and a Churchill businessman and party insider are the only two individuals in the race to lead Manitoba’s Tories, in what experts expect to be a lopsided contest.
Obby Khan — the member for Fort Whyte and former cabinet minister and CFL offensive lineman — has been approved to run in the race after announcing in August that he wants to succeed former premier Heather Stefanson, who quit in the aftermath of last year’s NDP victory at the ballot box.
Wally Daudrich — president of Lazy Bear Expeditions, a tour company in Churchill, and a long-serving member of the party’s board of directors and a former federal Conservative candidate — announced his interest in the party leadership in September and submitted his application Monday, ahead of Tuesday’s noon deadline.
Wally Daudrich submitted his application for the Manitoba Progressive Conservative party’s leadership, Monday.
Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives are expected to name a leader by the end of April.
The party’s leadership election committee will review Daudrich’s application “and will provide an update” on his status after a review — including an interview— is completed, a news release said Tuesday.
In the 2021 leadership race that followed former premier Brian Pallister’s resignation, the committee disqualified Ken Lee — the party’s former chief financial officer — without providing an explanation. The controversial candidate was endorsed by anti-maskers, anti-vaxers and the far-right People’s Party of Canada.
Daudrich has shared online some “strong views about politics” but nothing overtly disqualifying, said University of Manitoba political studies adjunct Prof. Christopher Adams.
Whether or not Daudrich is in the race, it’s shaping up to be a “coronation” for Khan, Adams said.
Classic Tory leadership races in Manitoba have a candidate representing rural, more right-of-centre interests versus an urban, more centrist type of candidate, Adams said. Rumblings about a high-profile rural Manitoban stepping up didn’t materialize.
“You look at this race and you’re missing that strong, rural component,” Adams said Tuesday.
“You want to have a big, competitive leadership race. When 80 or 90 per cent of the members get behind a certain candidate, it’s pretty well a coronation and it lacks excitement. It lacks a push for new members. It lacks media attention, it lacks the day of the convention and people watching with bated breath, and then the bump in the polls afterwards.
“You want to have very active campaigns for the benefit of the party.”
U of M political studies professor emeritus Paul Thomas said the absence of a “seriously” competitive contest reflects current political realities.
“The PCs lost badly in October 2023, are still trying to live down the shame of a disgraceful, divisive campaign, are divided internally and, in all probability, will be in opposition for at least two terms of NDP governments,” said Thomas.
The PC leadership contest rules were criticized in 2021 for favouring Stefanson after Pallister stepped down at the urging of his caucus, most of whom subsequently endorsed Stefanson publicly.
“What should have been almost a coronation for Stefanson turned into a close, chaotic contest with the outcome being challenged in the courts, all of which damaged the unity, reputation and image of the party,” Thomas said.
Members of the PC caucus had no interest in public endorsements Tuesday.
MLAs Jeff Wharton, Doyle Piwniuk, Wayne Balcaen and Grant Jackson weren’t prepared to say who they’ll endorse after being approached outside the chamber.
Neither would interim leader Wayne Ewasko.
“I’m actually excited we’ve got a couple of people who want to be our leader and excited to give Manitobans a choice to meet and greet a couple of our candidates,” one of whom — he said — will become premier in the next election, due in 2027.
Choosing a new leader is one of the most important steps the party must take “to clarify its political identity, burnish its tarnished image and recover its weakened credibility as an alternative government in waiting,” Thomas said.
“A more competitive leadership contest could bring in more new members and generate greater publicity but it could also expose infighting over past conflicts and disagreements over the future ideological directions of the party,” he said.
“When Pallister won the leadership by acclamation back in 2012, the party missed the potential benefits of a leadership race. It also meant that Pallister had a ‘permission slip’ to move the party toward a more fiscally conservative position on the political spectrum.”
The Pallister and Stefanson years in government saw the party adopt a hard-right fiscal policy intended to shrink government, reduce taxes, balance budgets and deregulate the economy, he said.
That probably isn’t a winning formula for sustained political success in Manitoba’s mainstream political culture, which is moderate and pragmatic, he said.
The first leadership event is scheduled Oct. 30 at the Delta Hotel.
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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