Manitoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard won’t lead party in next election

WINNIPEG – Faced with a revolt by party members, Jon Gerrard said Thursday he will not lead the Manitoba Liberals into the next election.

He announced the news in a scrum in which he tried to focus on the newly re-elected NDP government’s throne speech, but was peppered by reporters about his future.

“I’m here today to talk about the throne speech … but what you can take for the moment is that things are moving in the direction of having a full leadership convention in 2013, and I have no intention of running at that point,” Gerrard said in the noisy legislature rotunda as other politicians and interest group leaders milled about.

“I expect that there will be a new leader by the next election and I will be supporting that leader.”

Gerrard would not say whether he will step down voluntarily or await the results of a leadership review that is mandatory under the party’s constitution. He promised to have more to say before the end of the year.

The awkward announcement follows a long struggle for Gerrard to take the provincial Liberals out of the political wilderness. He took over the helm in 1998 after serving one term in the House of Commons.

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But under his guidance Liberal support slipped in every election and the party never garnered more than two seats. The watershed moment came in the Oct. 4 election when he retained the party’s lone seat but, for the first time in decades, the Liberals failed to get at least 10 per cent of the popular vote – a threshold that qualifies parties for a 50 per cent reimbursement of campaign expenses.

Gerrard said on election night he was considering his future. But some insiders said he was leaning toward staying, even threatening to run again for his job if party members voted for a leadership convention.

The crisis was set to come to a head next Monday, party sources told The Canadian Press. Gerrard was to face the party’s board of directors, many of whom were seeking him to commit to quitting within 18 months.

“He doesn’t control the board at all this time, and even longtime loyalists feel it’s time,” one insider said.

The party does not want Gerrard to quit immediately, sources said, because he holds the only Liberal seat in the legislature. The party would also be hard-pressed to afford a leadership convention right now because it is struggling to pay off more than $50,000 in debt from the election campaign.

A 2013 leadership convention would give a new leader time to gain experience before the next election, which will be in October 2015 under Manitoba’s fixed election-date law.

Gerrard is in no rush.

“I have a task right now in the party. That is to thank the many, many people who worked so hard in the campaign. Second, to make sure that we are on track to reduce and eliminate our deficit from the campaign and make sure the party is financially healthy. And third, to make sure the Manitoba Liberal Party is well-represented in the Manitoba legislature.”