Manitoba’s NDP government has had a number of conversions in advance of the provincial election this October. Two of the most recent examples were highlighted over the past two weeks at the Manitoba Legislature.
The first example relates to legislation introduced by the NDP that will cut off welfare payments for individuals who have serious outstanding warrants. This is an idea that was first introduced by the Progressive Conservative Party last year. Our Party believes that people who have serious outstanding warrants and who are refusing to deal with the charges against them should not receive taxpayer funded welfare payments while avoiding the law.
When this idea was introduced last year by the P.C. Party, the NDP government rejected it. They felt that criminals who had warrants for serious crimes and who were not dealing with those warrants should continue to collect welfare. They voted down legislation that would have turned the tap off a year ago on these taxpayer funded payments.
But now, just a few months before an election, the NDP have had a change of heart. Suddenly, they have adopted the P.C. Party initiative of ending payments to criminals who are avoiding the law. It’s a welcomed conversion, but one that is likely done more out of convenience than conviction. It’s clear the NDP didn’t want to go into an election still paying criminals who were refusing to deal with their warrants. So they have changed their mind, at least for now.
As well, it was in 2007 that the Progressive Conservative Party brought forward legislation that would end any payments from MPI to car thieves. After learning that some car thieves were getting MPI benefits as a result of injuries they received crashing vehicles they had stolen, Manitoba Conservatives acted to put an end to these payments.
But again the NDP took the side of the criminals and refused to end the payments. The NDP Attorney General went so far as to say that it was mean spirited to try to end MPI benefits to car thieves. They voted down the legislation and payments continued to flow to these convicted car thieves.
But suddenly, just this past month, the NDP had another conversion and have now decided that these benefits should be cut off to car thieves after all. Of course, it is clear that the only reason that they have now decided to act on this issue is because they are a few months away from an election and don’t want to explain to voters why they support giving MPI benefits to car thieves.
The only problem with the sudden change of heart that the NDP have had on these issues and others is they are not motivated by conviction, but rather political convenience. No doubt, given the opportunity to govern for another four years, they will simply go back to providing these taxpayer funded support to those who are breaking our laws and victimizing our communities. Hopefully when Manitobans vote in October, they won’t give the NDP that chance.
