It seems the NDP just can’t keep their hands out of the pockets of any of the Manitoba’s Crown Corporations. At the same time they have been busy raiding money from Manitoba Hydro, resulting in increased rates, it seems they have also been using Manitoba Public Insurance to obtain valuable polling information for political purposes.

Every political party runs political polls to determine how they are doing in the eyes of the public. Political polls are not cheap, usually costing around $20,000-$30,000. The cost for political polling is supposed to be paid for by each individual party and not from government funds. While government might poll on specific issues, it is not allowed to poll at taxpayers’ expense, people’s voting intention or general questions about how Manitobans feel the government is performing. Those are the types of questions political parties have to pay for not taxpayers’ through government funds.

Yet, we learned this past week that Manitoba Public Insurance has been polling asking people if they feel that the province is “on the right track” or the “wrong track”. This is the kind of question most political parties ask in their polling because it is a good indicator if people are likely to look for a change in government. While valuable information to a political party, it would have virtually no value to Manitoba Public Insurance whose job it is to insure vehicles in the province.

The MPI poll cost $20,000. Officials with MPI indicated that the results were not shared directly with the NDP government but did admit that they were shared with the Board of Directors of Manitoba Public Insurance. Those directors are appointed by the NDP government and one of them is the NDP Member of the Legislature for Transcona.

So Manitoba Public Insurance is spending $20,000 on polling that includes political questions and then passes that information on to the NDP appointed Board of Directors which includes a current NDP member of the Legislature. Manitoba motorists should not be paying for political polling information that is then shared with members of the NDP government. The NDP needs to get their hands out of the pockets of our Crown Corporations.

The $250,000 Question

Two years ago the NDP government passed legislation that would give political parties in Manitoba tens of thousands of dollars in public funding based on the number of votes they receive in an election. The Manitoba Progressive Conservative party rejected this ‘vote-tax’ and said we would raise money by asking people to voluntarily donate. This year the NDP would receive $250,000 in taxpayer funds from the vote-tax. NDP Premier Greg Selinger has said he expects that given the economic challenges the province faces, there will have to be reductions in spending. Perhaps the first place he should start is by stating he won’t take the $250,000 in public funds for the NDP. He needs to put the interests of Manitobans ahead of his party.