WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s incoming premier stressed the importance of unity and laid out plans for a budget as he met with his super-sized caucus Wednesday for the first time since winning the provincial election.
“Can you hear me at that end?” Pallister said with a laugh as he faced his 39-member Progressive Conservative caucus — the largest majority government in Manitoba in a century.
The meeting was held in a legislature committee room because there was not enough space in the Tory caucus office, which housed 19 politicians before the April 19 election.
Pallister twice mentioned unity in a short opening speech and touted it as one reason why the party scored a big electoral victory that saw the NDP ousted after 16 years in power.
“We had the best campaign I’ve ever been part of, ever seen. Tremendous unity, tremendous consistent messaging. A philosophy that came through in the work of each of us as individuals and all of us together,” he said.
Pallister also stressed the importance of unity going forward, and contrasted it with infighting in the NDP government that saw Premier Greg Selinger fend off an attempted caucus coup last year.
“We must replace dysfunction with unity. We must replace ideology with innovation and we must replace waste with real results for Manitobans.”
Unity for the Tories should not be a big hurdle in the immediate future, because party members are happy to be back in government for the first time since 1999, said political analyst Royce Koop.
Keeping the caucus happy in the long run could be a challenge, said Koop, who teaches political science at the University of Manitoba.
Pallister has promised to shrink cabinet and will have more than 25 backbenchers who will not have the prestige or pay of a minister.
“The problem with big majorities is that there are more personalities and egos that you have to worry about, and more sometimes-conflicting interests that need to be balanced with each other,” Koop said.
“It takes more massaging of egos, and this is something that Mr. Pallister has to do.”
Pallister said there will be tasks for everyone.
“There will be lots of opportunities for people to contribute … and everyone will have a job, I assure you.”
Pallister is to be sworn in and announce his cabinet ministers next Tuesday. He’s to spell out his government’s agenda in a throne speech May 16 and deliver a budget about two weeks later.
Pallister is also looking at the province’s finances and seeing what commitments by the outgoing NDP he is bound by. A fiscal update presented in March revealed the provincial deficit last year had more than doubled to $773 million.
Pallister was unable to say Wednesday whether he is bound by two major NDP hirings earlier this year: former Quebec premier Jean Charest to study rail-line relocation in Winnipeg and former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge to review the province’s balanced-budget law.
“All of us are learning every day,” he said.
“I’m getting briefings on a fairly regular basis and we’ll address the issues head on as we need to when we become government.”
