Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives are expected to decide among two candidates bidding to lead the party — and become the province’s first female premier — Saturday.
That’s despite a call from one of the two candidates to delay the vote over worries not everyone eligible to vote received their ballots on time.
Tuxedo MLA Heather Stefanson, a former provincial health minister, and former St. Boniface MP and retired Winnipeg police officer Shelly Glover are each vying for the party leadership,
The party is expected to reveal the winner of the weeks-long campaign at 5 p.m. Saturday.
But Glover has called for the vote count to be delayed, saying she believes thousands of party members may be unable to vote because they have not received ballots that are supposed to be filled out and submitted by Friday afternoon, either through the mail or by dropping them off in person at designated locations.
On Wednesday party officials said about 25,000 ballots had been mailed out, but some – they would not say how many – didn’t get to their destination.
The party says it has been working on solutions, such as setting up locations around the province where people can pick up ballots and fill them out.
If the vote reveal goes ahead as planned, Christopher Adams, a political sciences professor at the University of Manitoba, says either candidate could take the prize.
“People think Stefanson is leading in the race, but I think they’re both credible candidates,” he told Global News this week, noting because the party is using a one-member-one-vote system, picking a winner ahead of time is difficult.
“It’s not like the old-fashioned delegate conventions, so we really don’t know where those 24,000 (or so) members are dedicating their vote.”
Adams said both candidates will bring their own unique style to the job, should they win, and each will also face unique challenges.
“Heather Stefanson will be working with her colleagues, who are MLAs, and she’s one of the group, (whereas) Shelly Glover is coming from the outside,” he said.
“If (Glover) is chosen as the leader, her challenges will be somewhat different. She’ll have to unite the caucus behind her, and that’ll be a major challenge, and she’ll have to unite the business community behind her because much of the business community has been endorsing Heather Stefanson.”
“Each of the two have different challenges based on where their sources of power are in the party and their alliances with different people in the party.”
The leadership race was called after former premier Brian Pallister announced he would be stepping down as leader back in August amid plummeting poll numbers.
Adams says regardless who wins the leadership contest, the winning candidate is likely to distance themselves from Pallister in their new role as leader.
“It’s more difficult for Heather Stefanson in that. Shelly Glover was a federal Member of Parliament — she didn’t sit in Brian Pallister’s caucus,” he said.
“(But) I do think that the polls indicate that they have to sort of rebuild their support.”
In an interview with Global News in the lead-up to Saturday’s announcement, Stefanson said she’ll listen to Manitobans and take a collaborative approach if she’s elected leader, actions not always attributed to Pallister during his time as premier.
She said her top priorities as premier will be to reduce surgical and diagnostic backlogs in the province’s health-care system and help get businesses hit hard by the pandemic back up and running.
Glover, meanwhile, said she would like help bring a better decorum to Manitoba’s government if elected, and vowed to help spearhead a non-partisan, all-party Indigenous caucus under her leadership.
Glover said she would be a “team player” who would work to make sure voters have access to their elected officials.
–With files from The Canadian Press and Brittany Greenslade