WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s NDP government faces “a new crisis” after Premier Greg Selinger announced Tuesday he’d stay in charge despite calls from some of his top ministers to step aside.
Selinger and the rebellious ministers face tough decisions about where to go from here, said University of Winnipeg political science Prof. Allen Mills.
“It seems to me now that if Mr. Selinger wants to project an image of being strong and assertive, he has to ask for their resignations, he has to kick them out of cabinet,” Mills said.
A show of force might be just what the unpopular Selinger needs, especially after being able to muster only 15 of his 33 MLAs to stand behind him at his news conference Tuesday.
READ MORE: Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger says he’ll stay on
But making five top cabinet ministers walk the plank would also mean shaking up his government’s most important portfolios, including Finance and Justice.
“All options are on the table as we go forward,” is all Selinger would say about his next steps, adding that he has spoken to all the cabinet ministers who have suggested he consider resigning. Selinger cancelled a planned cabinet meeting Tuesday morning.
“The cleaner, more hopeful possibility for the NDP was for Selinger to go,” Mills said. “This creates a new story and a new crisis.”
At the same time, Mills said, the ministers who spoke against Selinger should be prepared to fall on their swords now that their attempt at pushing out the leader has failed. They should resign their posts “if they take seriously the positions they’ve taken,” Mills said.
Selinger also has to do something to reassure his uneasy caucus and party that he has a plan to turn around the dismal poll numbers that led to the calls for him to resign. Much of the blame is being placed on the unpopular decision to hike the PST, which Selinger acknowledged Tuesday could have been have been handled better.
“I do have regrets for the way it was rolled out,” Selinger said Tuesday while maintaining the hike was still the right thing to do, despite having promised at election time not to raise taxes.
Some of his ministers say Selinger alone should wear the blame for the PST debacle, with both Justice Minister Andrew Swan and Health Minister Erin Selby saying Manitobans are “angry” at him. Selby also said her leader has broken the trust of Manitobans, a condemnation that could have come directly from an opposition critic’s playbook.
The question for NDP rebels is would Selinger take all the PST-hike anger with him even if he did resign?
“Whoever takes over is going to have a difficult job because that issue of the PST has stuck very closely not just to Selinger but I think to the party,” Mills said.
READ MORE: Government warned about tax-hike trouble, documents show
The public airing of the NDP’s dirty laundry can’t hurt the Opposition Progressive Conservatives.
PC Leader Brian Pallister called on Selinger to bring the legislature back into session immediately. There the words of the rebellious ministers could be thrown in Selinger’s face on a daily basis.
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