Brandon Tory bolts from Stefanson team

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This article was published 05/01/2023 (673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Another day, another Tory MLA calls it quits.

On Friday, Labour Minister Reg Helwer became the latest member of Progressive Conservative Premier Heather Stefanson’s caucus to announce they won’t seek re-election this year.

“After 12 years of proudly representing Brandon West, I have decided to spend more time with my family and not seek re-election,” Helwer said on social media.

Helwer is the 10th Tory to confirm they will not run in the Oct. 3 election.

Municipal Relations Minister Eileen Clarke (Agassiz), Ralph Eichler (Lakeside), Blaine Pedersen (Midland), Dennis Smook (LaVerendrye) and Ian Wishart (Portage la Prairie) announced earlier they’re retiring from politics.

Nearly every day this past week, another member of the PC caucus has come forward to say they’re done after serving this term.

Last Thursday before the long weekend, it was deputy premier Cliff Cullen (Spruce Woods). On Tuesday, Indigenous Reconciliation and Northern Relations Minister Alan Lagimodiere (Selkirk) said he was done. On Wednesday, house Speaker Myrna Driedger (Roblin) announced her pending retirement.

Thursday was Kildonan-River East backbencher Cathy Cox’s turn to say she’s done.

On Friday, Helwer joined the chorus of caucus members who thanked and praised Stefanson as they head for the exit.

“As premier, you have led us to be a more co-operative and consultative government,” Helwer said in a letter to Stefanson. “We have improved relationships with the federal government, the City of Winnipeg and the Association of Manitoba Municipalities,” it said.

“We have worked hard to establish a great relationship with the City of Brandon, and together we have accomplished a great deal for the area,” Helwer’s letter said. “…This has all taken place due to your leadership and work ethic.”

The premier, who has been spending time in Florida with her family, issued a statement this week saying she knew in advance about each of her caucus colleague’s planned departures, but left it up to each MLA to choose when to announce their news.

Helwer and other caucus members who won’t run again have expressed confidence that “top notch” candidates will take their places.

Most of the veterans headed for the door will vacate rural seats that are considered safe for the PCs.

Helwer’s seat in Brandon West isn’t a completely safe seat for the Tories to count on winning in the next election. It was held by the NDP, under the government of Gary Doer, from 1999 until the PCs won it back in 2007.

Several PC MLAs still haven’t revealed their intentions. That includes the lone Winnipeg area holdout, Shannon Martin, in McPhillips. The urban constituency is considered up for grabs. Incumbents typically have an advantage because of name recognition but the Tories in Winnipeg have almost no chance of winning, according to successive Probe Research Inc. surveys that show the NDP is headed toward victory.

Martin confirmed Friday he has “nothing to announce yet.”

Stefanson is expected back at the legislature Monday, her press secretary said. The premier will meet with reporters on Tuesday for year-end interviews that were postponed when the premier fell ill a week before Christmas.

Her last public event with the media was a Dec. 16 news conference called by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs in which she promised provincial support for a feasibility study to search the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of slaying victims Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.

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