The NDP issued their annual Throne Speech this week to open a new session of the Manitoba Legislature. The speech, which is intended to provide the vision the government has for the province, comes at a time when the NDP is struggling to regain the trust of Manitobans and to repair its broken government which has been hurt by internal fighting.
The NDP Throne Speech was actually less about what they are planning to do over the next four years if they get re-elected, and more about what they have failed to do since becoming government 16 years ago.
The NDP are now promising to improve health care and reduce ambulance fees. Both are things that are important but both are things that the NDP refused to do for a decade and a half. Of course it was only a few years ago that the NDP promised to ensure every Manitoban had access to a family physician by the end of this year, a promise they are now reneging on.
There were also some repeated promises on environmental protection. The same promises the NDP have made and broken for years. Along with another pledge to reduce wait times for child care spaces, something the NDP pledge annually without much success.
What most commentators who listened to the speech remarked on is how so many of these promises have been made before. While many of them are important, there is little trust that the NDP are actually going to deliver on them because they have failed to do so over several terms as government. In fact, that is really what the provincial election in April of 2016 is really all about. It will be about trust.
The NDP broke the trust of Manitobans in the last provincial election when they promised not to raise taxes and then, shortly after being re-elected, increased the Provincial Sales Tax (PST). They also expanded the PST to items such as home insurance. That broken promise, along with many others, makes it very hard for many Manitobans to trust Premier Greg Selinger and the NDP when they make commitments.
In fact, trust was one of the key issues that caused the rebellion within the NDP when five cabinet ministers in the NDP government resigned late last year. They indicated that they had lost trust in Premier Greg Selinger. Manitobans were left to wonder why anyone should have trust in the government if their own members don’t.
This week’s Throne Speech by the NDP wasn’t really about looking forward. It was mostly about looking back to the many things they failed to keep their commitments on. And it came from a government that has broken their trust with Manitobans. Broken trust, from a broken government.
