Judge’s comments in Manitoba PC leadership case called confusing

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This article was published 18/11/2021 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Remarks made by the judge who will hear the court challenge launched by the losing candidate in the Manitoba Tory leadership race have been called into question.

A Court of Queen’s Bench justice said Friday the public has an “interest in knowing whether the election of our new premier was flawed.”

A veteran political analyst said that comment adds to “confusion in the mind of the public.”

The disputed election of Heather Stefanson as PC leader by party members was not the election of a premier, said Paul Thomas, University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus.

“There is a separate process for installing a new premier,” he said.

Even if Justice Jim Edmond rules in favour of PC leadership rival Shelly Glover, who has applied to the court to declare the results of the Oct. 30 vote invalid and order another leadership election, Stefanson remains premier, said Thomas.

That’s because she has the support of a majority of the 57 MLAs in the legislature, which is required in order to be sworn in as premier, and she was on Nov. 2, he said.

“In political terms, there is something of a cloud of doubt about the validity of the leadership contest,” said Thomas. “In legal terms, there is no doubt about the validity of the process by which Stefanson was installed as premier. But the two process are incorrectly conflated in the public mind and the judge’s statement compounds that confusion.”

The judge’s comments “reflect the overlap and intersection under our constitutional order of politics and law that leads to confusion in the public mind,” Thomas said.

That, and a lack of knowledge are reflected in an Abacus poll published Friday that showed one-third or more of respondents were ill informed about certain basic features of Canada’s constitutional order.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca