View From the Legislature

This past Saturday, Brian Pallister officially became the new leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party.

Many Manitobans will be familiar with Mr. Pallister having served the province as both a member of the Manitoba Legislature and a federal Member of Parliament in the past. Those opportunities have given him years of experience dealing with issues important to Manitoba and ensuring the interests of Manitobans are heard at various levels of government.

In addition to his experience in public service, Mr. Pallister has also owned and operated a small business and while he is a now a resident of Winnipeg, has a strong background in agriculture and its importance to our province.

Early last week the new leader of the Progressive Conservative Party made it clear that he believes that Manitoba is filled with great promise and that we are not, as is often said, a ‘have-not’ province but that we currently have a ‘have-not’ NDP government that is unable to meet the potential of Manitoba.

As a result of only one candidate having filed their nomination papers by Saturday to run for leadership of the P.C. Party of Manitoba, there will not be a leadership convention and Mr. Pallister began his work as new leader immediately. While acknowledging that there would have been some benefits to a leadership convention process with multiple candidates, the reality is the demands of modern day politics means that many leadership races do not attract multiple candidates as it is a difficult career and family decision to make.

With this part of the process over, I look forward to working with the new Leader of the P.C. Party and the energy and ideas that he will bring to the Party. It is still more than three years away until the next provincial election but there is a great deal of work to do in fulfilling the role of Official Opposition and preparing a new vision for Manitoba.