Big night for the NDP

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This article was published 04/10/2011 (4784 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 Greg Selinger may be no Gary Doer, but he can still deliver a majority government.

 Any doubts about Selinger’s leadership of the party he inherited from his popular predecessor were erased Tuesday night when he led the NDP to its fourth consecutive majority government.

 Selinger and the NDP won 37 seats, the larges majority in Manitoba history. It is one more than they had prior to the election. They needed 29 for a majority.

 “Something big is happening in Manitoba,” a grinning Selinger told a roaring crowd at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. “I’ve never been so optimistic than I am tonight about the future of Manitoba.”

 Selinger didn’t just keep the NDP in power — he also made history as this is the first time Manitobans have elected four consecutive majorities from the same party. Selinger is also the first Manitoban to win an election after taking over as premier midway through the previous term.

 Despite a fairly negative campaign that spent as much time attacking the previous Tory government’s record on health care and Crown corporations, Selinger claimed “Manitobans went to the ballot box and they voted for optimism.”

 Meanwhile, the Progressive Conservatives are looking for their third leader in 12 years as Hugh McFadyen announced his resignation in his concession speech.

 The Tories increased their popular vote by more than six points but failed to add any seats to come in with 19 total. The influx of city seats needed to take down the NDP just did not materialize.

 McFadyen acknowledged hard work translated into more votes but not where the Tories needed them.

 “Obviously, we didn’t get those votes in the right places to translate into seats in the Manitoba legislature,” said McFadyen.

 He said he will stay on as leader until the party can choose his successor.

 The NDP victory was bigger than most pundits and even the New Democrats themselves expected as polls showed the Tories closer in the popular vote than they had been since 1999.

 Selinger and McFadyen were both re-elected in their own ridings, as was Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard. The latter held onto his River Heights seat without much trouble despite a strong push by the Tories. However, it was the only silver lining in the doom-and-gloom clouds hanging over the Liberal party in Manitoba. Gerrard’s is the only Liberal seat in the Manitoba legislature again, and the party’s share of the popular vote plummeted below eight per cent, down four points from 2007.

 The party even failed to pick up Tyndall Park, a Grit-friendly riding incorporating much of the seat Kevin Lamoureux held before vacating it for federal politics in 2010. That, too, is now NDP turf.

 Tuesday night’s results will also raise questions about Gerrard’s fate as leader, questions he deferred to a later date.

 “This is a night to celebrate,” said Gerrard. “There will be plenty of time to discuss that in the days ahead.”

 All Gerrard would commit to is staying on as the MLA for River Heights for four more years.

 James Beddome, leader of the Green Party of Manitoba, had hoped for a watershed, but it was more like a trickle.

 With a second-place result in Wolseley, Beddome won 50 per cent more votes than the party achieved last election. The Greens scored a record number of third-place finishes.

 “We’ve got another four years to chip away at it,” he said.

 Beddome likened the challenge the Greens faced in this election to the independent organic grocery story going up against chains like Safeway and Superstores.

 Beddome, 27, ran an aggressive campaign to steal NDP votes in Wolseley but it was not nearly enough to make a dent in the NDP’s grasp on the Winnipeg riding. His spirited performance in the televised leaders debate probably did win some people over to the virtues of the Greens.

 So far, it’s two for two for incumbent provincial governments this fall, with P.E.I. electing the Liberals to a second majority in that province Monday. Ontario voters go to the polls Thursday and Newfoundlanders head out to vote next week.

 — with files from Mary Agnes Welch, Bruce Owen, Larry Kusch and Martin Cash

 mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca