Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Getting Started...........

Well since I'm getting involved in "grass roots" politics here in Manitoba this seems to be the most logical jumping off point.

No shortage of action on the local or national front!

Here in Manitoba the PC Manitoba party leader Stuart Murray has been given the message that nearly half of the membership wants another choice. In case you forgot Mr. Murray was put forward in a leadership vacuum that came to be after Former Premier Gary Filmon stepped out of politics.

What came after that upheaval was a number of difficult political setbacks for the PC party.
In between having their financial support slashed by a clever bit of populist NDP trickery ( the NDP passed legislation preventing business' from making political donations thus removing one of the prime avenues of PC funding!) and some acrimonious infighting within the ranks Mr. Murray has been pretty much an invisible man!

While the NDP has held sway over the province and quietly been building a backlog of unpaid bills while increasing taxes and thwarting any real economic development, our leader of the opposition has been perplexingly quiet. Although some conservatives will say that this is only because of a liberal/left wing bias in the media it probably is just because there has been little coherent effort on the part of the oppostion party generate public awareness of the current government's shortcomings.

So, now Mr. Murray has stepped up. Finally admitting that there is a problem and apparently showing some leadership skills he has called for a leadership convention. Now he did not have to do this since the results of a vote during the recent Annual General Meeting gave him better than 50% support from the delegates. A leadership convention may not solve the problems that PCs have but I think it is a step in the right direction.
For one thing Stuart Murray now has a chance to wake himself and the party up to the challenges and opportunities they face. Perhaps the party can find a better more proactive leader who can raise the level of commitment within and without the party. Perhaps either way the PC party of Manitoba can once again become an effective part of the political process.

If the PC s can carry forward with some momentum from the AGM and the leadership convention then maybe they can create enough public interest and confidence in the general public to generate the support needed to be an effective force. Maybe if the general public sees effective leadership in PC s the province can get a badly needed change of government.
PGP in WPG

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