WINNIPEG – Manitoba premier Greg Selinger has apologized for failing to tell the truth about accepting a free ticket to a Winnipeg Jets game.
“I apologize for inadvertently misleading the house,” Selinger said in a statement to the Legislature Friday morning. “I sincerely apologize.”
Selinger admitted earlier this week he attended a Winnipeg Jets game at MTS Centre on December 29, 2011 as the guest of Ken Cheveldayoff, a Saskatchewan cabinet minister and brother of the Jets General Manager.
He said Cheveldayoff refused to be reimbursed for the luxury box seat, so Selinger instead made a charitable donation. He later clarified that he donated $300 to a housing charity on February 7, 2012.
Selinger never revealed the donation-for-ticket arrangement during a scandal in 2012 over other NDP ministers who accepted free tickets to Jets games. At the time, Selinger told the Legislature under questioning by the opposition that he always paid for his Jets tickets himself, and bought them directly from the Jets organization.
“It was inadvertent and that is why I put the statement on the record and if anyone wishes to challenge that in the house they have the right to do that,” said Selinger.
After Selinger’s statement in the Legislature Friday, he was asked by reporters why it took him two years to come clean about what really happened.
“Simply because it became a live issue this week and this is the time to deal with it so we can stay focused on the priorities of Manitobans,” Selinger said.
Opposition Progressive Conservative party Brian Pallister said he accepted Selinger’s apology, but couldn’t help getting a dig in about it.
“I’m sure he apologized for reasons I may question but the fact is he did apologize,” Pallister said. The PC leader said the matter won’t end here, however: critics will ask more questions about Selinger’s “inadvertent” misleading of the house in Question Period in coming days.
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