No clear winner in arena of public opinion

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/09/2019 (1893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Next week, Tuesday, civic-minded Manitobans will go to the polls and mark a ballot for the candidate, party or leader they believe best represents their interests — or perhaps the one they dislike the least.

Whatever the case, for those who have been paying attention to the various campaigns, reading up on the party platforms, or watching the daily news cycle for the political back and forth that normally punctuates election season, it will be time to finally make a choice and usher in a new government.

As I’ve been watching this election unfold — and really it’s been on our political radar since January when Premier Brian Pallister refused to rule out an early election call to a reporter from The Canadian Press — I have to wonder just how much a leader’s character factors into the choices we make as the electorate.

Strength of character, to me, is one of the defining traits of a leader. They have to show moral courage, which sometimes demands risking criticism and ridicule for their actions or beliefs. They have to show some genuine concern for those under their care — and in this case that’s all of us, even if we don’t vote for the person. Leaders tend to be optimistic and upbeat, with a positive attitude and reflective message that draws people in. They have to give the electorate a clear vision of where they want to lead us and how they will get us there. And in order to be successful during an election campaign, or in the day-to-day operations of government, they have to be able to communicate that message effectively.

Perhaps that’s why I find the current election cycle so disappointing — I expect more from the four men who purport to lead the province.

For months, the Progressive Conservatives have been engaging in a campaign of character assassination regarding NDP Leader Wab Kinew. As part of that campaign, the Tories created a website called wabrisk.ca that has not only called into question every single election plank Kinew has put forward as party leader, but also denigrates the leader as the “only leader with criminal convictions,” questions his “checkered past” stating that he should “own up” to domestic-violence charges and directs Manitobans to question what the NDP leader is hiding regarding a previous assault on a taxi driver.

Though — to his credit — Kinew attempted to get somewhat ahead of this negative ad campaign by directly addressing his past in NDP campaign messaging early on, his actions since have not kept up with the public persona he wishes Manitobans to buy into.

On Friday, The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Kinew refused to attend an environmental forum unless the female moderator — former Free Press editorial writer and current political columnist Shannon Sampert — was removed.

Kinew and Eric Reder, one of the forum’s organizers with the Wilderness Committee, acknowledged to the newspaper that there were conversations between the party and organizers about her role. In the past, Sampert has written several columns critical of Kinew and the party. As a result, the organization had to decide on the day of the event to ask Sampert to step down, replacing her at the last minute with Molly McCracken from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“I am stunned by this,” Sampert said. “Here’s a man who obviously is not ready to be premier and does not like strong women. This is payback for my column on his domestic-violence history and his misogyny, and clearly, he still has a problem with women.”

As well, and somewhat ironically, Kinew has refused to have a sit-down interview with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, on the off chance he would be questioned on air by Melissa Ridgen, one of two hosts of the APTN National News program. Ridgen, who used to be employed with The Brandon Sun as a city editor, told me on Friday that Kinew wanted to speak with the other host, Dennis Ward, “because they have chemistry.”

In fact, like Sampert, Ridgen has reported on now 16-year-old allegations of domestic assault that still plague Kinew — that he had thrown his ex-partner Tara Hart across a room and that she was left with rug burn on her legs — even though the allegations were stayed. As part of her reporting, Ridgen also interviewed Ms. Hart, and suggests he simply doesn’t want to be interviewed on this topic by women who will call him out.

“I think we should all be questioning if he is a changed man,” Ridgen said.

Just as Kinew seems to be avoiding a public reckoning with his past in front of the cameras or an audience, so, too, has Brian Pallister. The Progressive Conservative leader has been touting the series of hour-long town halls that his campaign team have been holding over the last four weeks, the last of which was held on Wednesday evening — the same day that The Brandon Sun and the Brandon Chamber of Commerce had originally scheduled an all-candidates debate, which the premier refused to attend.

Oddly enough, I managed to listen in to the town hall as my phone rang just in time for me to join the event. It was at least the second, possibly the third time the Tories had phoned my line to join a town hall in as many weeks, which to me discounts the notion that they are reaching “thousands of Manitobans.” Perhaps they were, but they might have been phoning many of the same numbers.

The hour-long town hall was punctuated by mostly soft-ball questions that I can only imagine were vetted before being posed to the premier by “ordinary Manitobans.” It gave Pallister a safe and easy soapbox from which to pontificate — one in which he would not be rudely interrupted and questioned by other candidates. For a man and former athlete who likes to use sports analogies, Pallister should understand when I say that his performance in this election has lacked grit. There was nothing brave about these town halls, and he has not shown moral courage by standing up for himself and his cabinet and defending three years of governance.

For their part, Green Party Leader James Beddome and Manitoba Liberal Party Leader Dougald Lamont have had less to defend in terms of their personal pasts or political records. According to a recent poll by Probe Research, the pair have the highest net approval ratings among Manitoba voters. Unfortunately, this may be more due to the fact that Manitobans don’t know them very well — there’s that need for communication from leadership.

For Lamont, whose party only recently achieved official party status following his own byelection win, it’s imperative that he manage to convince Manitobans that his party represents a better option than the NDP as the official Opposition.

That same Probe survey also suggest that Manitobans’ impressions of the PC and NDP parties have worsened over the course of the campaign — and so too have the Liberals, as Lamont has criss-crossed the province trying to get out a left-leaning platform in an attempt to undermine NDP support. And yet it’s disappointing that the Liberals didn’t see the value in offering Manitobans a clear plan forward, which to my mind would include a full-costed platform.

The only party to see a positive net approval rating according to Probe is the Greens. Yet James Beddome is the perennial “also ran” in this province, who has offered a platform that seems to be a mash-up of items from the NDP, Tories and the Liberals.

None of these men have managed to capture the public’s imagination in any meaningful way. While that may be a product of summer distraction on the part of voters, there is something to be said of leadership and charisma here — or rather, the lack thereof. And we wonder why public enthusiasm in elections appears to be waning, election after election.

» Matt Goerzen