Manitoba PC Party willing to go to court over Glover challenge

The PC Party of Manitoba says it is willing to let a challenge of the party’s leadership results play out in court.

Leadership candidate Shelly Glover filed the challenge saying there were “substantial irregularities” affecting the results of last month’s vote.

Heather Stefanson won the race to become party leader and Manitoba’s new premier by 363 votes.

Glover claims party officials gave her team a spreadsheet — after the deadline for mail-in votes — that showed just over 16,000 ballots were to be counted. But the final results had an extra 501 votes, Glover said in an affidavit.

Glover’s court filings also allege that at one point unsealed ballot boxes were moved out of the room where votes were being counted and into an adjacent room.

READ MORE: Court challenge over Manitoba PC Party leadership begins

In court documents filed today, the party says while it has confidence that “no such grounds would exist, unfounded allegations would be detrimental for the PC Party to carry out its role and to the long-term reputation of the PC Party. The PC Party thus wishes to take a pragmatic approach to the current dispute.”

The party is hoping for an “expeditious resolution” by December 20.

In separate documents filed Monday, Stefanson is also asking to be an intervenor in the case.

“Stefanson has a clear and direct interest in the subject matter of
these proceedings and has the ability to provide a unique contribution to the proceedings not offered by Glover or the PC Party,” said the motion brief filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench.

A hearing is set for Friday to determine whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case.