Sterling Lyon

You know, very rarely is, is a government only in one term in power.

Sterling Lyon was the last one to be a premier for only one term.

So I think anybody who runs for the opposition leader right now has got to realize it's a long road.

It's a long road to, to be in opposition, because it's highly unlikely that Canoe's government will, uh, lose in the next election.

This is where both of our stories begin, and very sadly, it's also where our stories diverge from one another.

It turns out that in our case, the deviation in our histories comes down to the political fortunes of one man, Sterling Lyon, who was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

In July of 1974, he ran in the Canadian federal election to represent Winnipeg South in the Canadian Parliament.

In my timeline, he succeeded, narrowly defeating Liberal incumbent James A. Richardson by one point.

In my timeline, having returned to Manitoba's political level, he led the Progressive Conservatives to win a majority government in Manitoba with 33 of the 57 seats in Manitoba's legislative assembly, leading him to become the Premier of Manitoba.

Being the leader of Manitoba's Conservatives, he wanted to kill Mincome since, to the Conservatives, it reeked of socialism bordering on communism.

Meanwhile, in my timeline, where Sterling Lyon was sitting in the Canadian Parliament, he wasn't in Manitoba.

This allowed incumbent Edward Schreyer's New Democratic Party to defeat the Conservatives and form a minority government, being one seat short of a majority.