Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

So what does effective provincial advocacy actually look like from the municipal perspective? What role should a mayor, a reeve, a councillor play in building relations with the provincial government and yes, even the opposition? To help us understand those questions and a few more, we are honoured to be joined by three people who have quite an extensive history in provincial advocacy and municipal advocacy.

We are joined by former NDP Minister of Municipal Government, Drew Caldwell, who served in the role from November 2014 to May 2016, former Progressive Conservative Minister of Municipal Relations, Andrew Smith, who served in the role from January 2023 to October 2023, and the Association of Manitoba Municipalities President, Kathy Valentino.

Kathy, Andrew, Drew, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Chris.

And you will know that when you see it, you will understand that some people are maybe more partisan than other people.

So you want to be thoughtful and careful about how you approach uh in engaging opposition members as advocates um because you know it's as diverse as the personalities that are out there but it's important to do and to do it thoughtfully uh uh you know during my time most all but uh I guess seven years in the 17, my benchmate in Brandon, there's two constituencies at Brandon, Brandon East and Brandon West, three now actually, but there was two when I was there.

Most of the time it was held by Conservative members.

And I have to say during my time in office, one of those Conservative members was the best working relationship I had in Brandon.

I won't compromise myself.

Well, he was only in the role for just over a year, but Obby Khan's time as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives has already come to an end.

And he hasn't just resigned the position, he's also done with the party, and plans to sit as an independent MLA.

If you vote PC in our province, and if you hope the PCs might have a shot in the 2027 election, then buckle up as we try to sort through what happened and the way forward.

Um, but the fighting from within, the destruction from within, doesn't preach unity.

A- and it clearly shows that these, these elected members, the, the minority of them, again, I want to be very clear that there was a large majority that supported me, but when you have that one cancerous cell or two cancerous cell, it will spread throughout the entire body, and you will die from it.

So, all of this is happening as a new poll from the Winnipeg Free Press indicates that Khan and the Tories are losing support among Manitobans.

You heard Khan say that part of his job as party leader was rebuilding the trust between the party and you, the public.

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