WINNIPEG – Manitoba Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari has announced she plans to run for a legislature seat in the Fort Rouge constituency in Winnipeg.
Bokhari, a lawyer, was chosen Liberal leader in 2013 but has never held public office.
She had been under pressure from some party members to run in recent byelections to gain a legislature seat, but is holding off until the provincial election set for next April.
Fort Rouge has been held by the NDP since 1999, but voted Liberal for much of the 1970s and ’80s.
It is adjacent to the only seat the Liberals currently have — River Heights, held by former leader Jon Gerrard.
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Bokhari’s decision comes in advance of this weekend’s Liberal annual general meeting, where she is expected to face questions about the party’s election readiness.
If Bokhari wins a seat, it will provide a financial boost for the party. Right now, because she is not getting a politician’s salary from the public purse, the party is paying her out of its own funds.
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The Manitoba Liberals are trying to bounce back from two decades in the political wilderness and a disastrous 2011 election in which they captured only 7.5 per cent of the vote. The result was below the 10 per cent required for a partial rebate of campaign expenses, and the party took a year to pay off its election debts.
The Liberals are now in the black and finished 2014 with a surplus of $36,582, according to financial statements filed recently with Elections Manitoba. The Liberals have also seen their popular support rebound in opinion polls. They appear to have benefited from public anger over the NDP government’s 2013 decision to raise the provincial sales tax. One recent poll estimates Liberal support at or near 20 per cent.
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Bokhari has been working to rebuild party constituency associations and has staked out a few policy positions, but has also been accused by many pundits of keeping too low a profile.
Fort Rouge is currently represented by Jennifer Howard, one of five former NDP cabinet ministers who publicly challenged Premier Greg Selinger’s leadership. Howard has said she intends to run for re-election. In 2011, Liberal candidate Paul Hesse finished second in Fort Rouge with 23 per cent of the vote.
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