Manitoba has a new Premier. Well, not really. Following the NDP leadership convention this past weekend the NDP decided to select as their leader the same person who was already their leader, Greg Selinger.

That means that Premier Selinger gets to keep his job, at least until the next election, while Manitobans are left to wonder what the whole thing was intended to accomplish and who really is the winner at the end of the day. One thing we know for sure, it wasn’t about the best interests of Manitobans. From the beginning, the NDP civil war was simply about power. Each of the leadership contestants for the NDP were trying to either wrestle away power or hold on to the power that they have.

And through the past several months and all of the embarrassment that it caused Manitoba, the interests of Manitobans took a back seat. At least when it comes to the NDP government. Their focus was working in the backrooms trying to gather support for their respective leadership choices. No doubt many backroom deals where made that Manitobans will be expected to pay for.

And while each of the NDP leadership candidates talked about bringing change to Manitoba, none of them truly represented it. Collectively, the candidates have spent more than half a century elected to the Manitoba Legislature. Any promises they made during the leadership had to have been weighed against the fact they didn’t accomplish it during their time in government. And so the NDP members and the  blocs of union voters decided to stick with Mr. Selinger and send a clear signal to Manitobans that they support the high tax and mismanagement ways of this NDP government.

With the family feud in the NDP now officially over, what is left? It is clear that the NDP are as divided as they have ever been. Several NDP MLAs still remain outside of the Caucus and are not allowed to attend meetings. A budget has yet to be tabled and the Manitoba Legislature has not yet been recalled into session.

Already some of the senior staff in government who did not support Mr. Selinger are packing boxes and leaving their jobs at the Legislature. The Commissioner responsible for compliance of Manitoba election laws announced this week he is undertaking an investigation to see if NDP leadership candidates broke election financing laws during the leadership by paying delegate registration fees. So while the leadership crisis may be over for Mr. Selinger, the crisis of confidence in the government he leads continues.

And while it may make for an interesting political spectacle, make no mistake, none of this is good for Manitoba.