WINNIPEG – In the midst of a caucus revolt, more turmoil for premier Greg Selinger.
The premier admitted Wednesday he went to a Winnipeg Jets game in 2011 with a ticket he didn’t pay for directly.
“A lot of people have been surprised that the premier wasn’t up front when this all blew up a couple of years ago,” said Colin Craig, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Selinger went to the Jets game against the Kings at the MTS Centre on Dec. 29, 2011, at the invitation of Ken Cheveldayoff, a Saskatchewan cabinet minister and brother of Jets’ general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
“We each paid for our own ticket — he had his own ticket and paid for it himself,” Cheveldayoff said over the phone.
But that’s not exactly what happened. Selinger said he tried to pay but his money was refused, so he made a $300 donation to a housing charity a month after the game in lieu of paying for the ticket.
That’s also not what he told the legislature in 2012, when then-Tory leader Hugh McFadyen asked Selinger, “So did the premier directly purchase his tickets, then, from Jets box office?”
“I directly purchased my own tickets, yes,” Selinger answered.
“And were they purchased directly from the jets organization?” McFadyen asked again.
“Yes,” Selinger replied.
During the Jets’ inaugural season, the premier came down hard on MLAs who accepted free tickets to the sold-out games and banned future freebies.
Selinger wouldn’t discuss the ticket scandal on Thursday, which was the day the throne speech was delivered, but is expected to address the issue Friday.
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