View From the Legislature

After a month of high political drama, it would be understandable if Manitobans were left wondering what all the fuss was about.

Last week the Manitoba NDP government brought forward its annual Throne Speech. It kicked off what will be one of the shortest fall sessions (although fall is mostly a memory at this point) that the Manitoba Legislature has seen in recent times.

The Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party held its annual general meeting this past weekend in Winnipeg. Several hundred Party members came to the convention and close to 1,000 were on hand for a gala fundraising dinner that capped off the event.

The last few weeks have been unprecedented in Manitoba politics. It began several weeks ago with the public musings that Premier Greg Selinger was under pressure from some in his political party to resign.

This week, NDP MLA’s and Cabinet Minister’s were busy blaming Greg Selinger for the increase in the PST from 7% to 8% while they did their best to get him to quit as Premier.

While it’s the latest in a series of victories, it sometimes doesn’t feel that way. And it won’t feel like a victory until the U.S. accepts the most recent World Trade Organization ruling issued this past week.

Something isn’t adding up. Every year the provincial NDP government makes announcements they say are going to strengthen our schools and improve education in the province. And every year things get worse and worse.

Would you hire someone for $50,000 with the expectation that they will do nothing in return for the money? The NDP would, and in fact they did.

During the last provincial election Greg Selinger and the NDP ran ads saying that Manitobans would not have to pay one penny for the cost of constructing the BiPole III hydro transmission line.

As I toured the newly expanded Steinbach Regional Secondary School (SRSS) with Campus Administrator Luis Reis it was hard not to think back to when I had graduated from that school and how much things have changed.