What is 'near and dear' to Brian Pallister's heart? Education, health care and his wife's pizza
Progressive Conservative leader says attack ads by NDP are 'profane'
Brian Pallister knows exactly where to turn when he needs to fill his heart and his stomach, saluting his wife for being the answer to both.
In a sit-down interview with CBC Information Radio host Marcy Markusa, the leader of Manitoba's Progressive Conservative Party expressed his love for his home province and his desire to do the right thing — not necessarily the most popular thing.
He also declared a distaste for mudslinging, although his party has targeted NDP Leader Wab Kinew, his closest rival ahead of the Sept. 10 provincial election, in a series of election ads dubbed "Wab Risk."
The leaders of the province's four main political parties are pitching their platforms and revealing a bit about themselves to Markusa this week. Kinew will be in studio on Friday while Green Party Leader James Beddome was in the studio on Tuesday and Liberal Party Leader Dougald Lamont was in on Wednesday.
After nearly 17 consecutive years of NDP government in Manitoba, Pallister's Tories rolled to a majority government with 40 seats in the 2016 election, knocking the NDP from 37 seats to 14.
Pallister, a father, former Member of Parliament and financial consultant, said he wants to keep the job and offered some insight into who he is.
Markusa: What is your guilty pleasure?
Pallister: My wife's pizza. It's awesome. And we don't get to share it with our kids anymore because we're empty-nesters as of January, so I get more of it now, which is very dangerous.
M: Whose advice do you value?
P: My wife [and] my oldest friends, who are not really political people and will tell you when you're wrong and occasionally tell you when you're right.
M: What's your greatest fear?
P: I suppose the loss of our children.
M: What do you hope your legacy will be?
P: I'd love to see Manitoba never defined again as a have-not province. We have so much here. We are so, so blessed to live here.
'Doing my best to learn'
Earlier this year, Pallister's government set up a commission to look at ways to improve Manitoba's school system from kindergarten to Grade 12.
That report has yet to be released but Pallister, a former school teacher, reiterated on Thursday that the quality of education in the province is "near and dear to my heart."
His mother also was a teacher and his sister just retired from a teaching career "and I wouldn't be premier of Manitoba without the opportunities that teachers gave me through the school system to become a little bit smarter — to some, not enough, but I'm doing my best to learn," he said.
He called the education commission "historic," saying the last time a major review occurred was during the 1958-67 tenure of Premier Duff Roblin.
"We know by all measures, we're last [in the country] in terms of educational outcomes for our kids. We can do better," Pallister said, repeating his commitment to build new schools.
"That is something we must do. We've got a lot of our students now who are in these portable units."
During their first term in office, Pallister's Tories began work on seven new schools in the province and he's promised 13 more would be built over the next decade if his party forms the next government.
"The light of learning that goes on in a child's eyes is something you never forget as a teacher, so we need to do a better job of making sure that light goes on more often," Pallister said.
The possibility of reducing the number of school divisions in Manitoba is also on the radar, said Pallister, who feels there is a lot of fat that can be trimmed at that level of the education system.
"Our school system's structures take more resources and put them at the top … and less at the classroom level," he said.
"The teachers that work in the school with the children have great ideas and we need those ideas to come forward. The system's too big at the top; it doesn't hear those ideas."
Attack ads
During the election campaign, the Tories have issued several attack ads aimed at NDP Leader Wab Kinew and his background.
The "Wab Risk" advertising campaign, which includes YouTube videos and targeted Facebook ads, asks whether Kinew is leadership-worthy, reminding voters of his past criminal convictions — for impaired driving and for assaulting a cab driver. He has received pardons for both offences.
He also was charged with assaulting a former romantic partner in 2003 but that charge was stayed.
Kinew, who worked as a musician, broadcaster and university executive before he entered politics, has been open about many sensitive aspects of his past. His autobiographical book, The Reason You Walk, portrays a troubled young man who grew to a thoughtful and remorseful adult, although one of the Wab Risk ads says Kinew's testimony under oath about assaulting a taxi driver is different from what's in the book.
Asked if Kinew's past is an issue Manitobans should care about, Pallister wouldn't say yes or no.
"I think anyone who seeks public office should be prepared to have their records made public. I think the issue is less the record than the coverup of it," he said.
"In the last provincial election, Mr. Kinew and the NDP did not disclose his record. That fact is that three years ago a book came out and torqued the stories and made them have a different slant."
I could do that if I was running the campaign, if I was the dictator that others describe me as. But I'm not.- Brian Pallister
Pallister then tried to drop the topic, telling Markusa he would prefer to talk about health care, education, infrastructure "and other issues."
But Markusa noted the money and effort spent on the ads by his campaign suggest Kinew's past is something the PCs want to talk about.
She suggested Pallister tell his campaign team not to go in that direction if it's something he's not comfortable with.
"I could do that if I was running the campaign, if I was the dictator that others describe me as. But I'm not," he said.
The NDP "have run profane ads for the first time in the history of Manitoba," he said, and he's been subject to more than $2-million worth of ads "putting my less-than-attractive face on billboards, saying I wanted to destroy health care."
The PC government has made the largest investments in health care "and the most significant reforms in the history of the province," he said, investing $414 million more in health care in 2019 and making a $2-billion commitment to further investments.
"We've made more improvements in [health care in] Manitoba in the last four years than any other province, and will continue to," Palister said.
While in government, the PCs launched a significant review and transformation of Manitoba's health-care system that saw a number of Winnipeg hospital emergency rooms either close or convert into urgent care centres, with the intent to find efficiencies and cut wait times.
Numbers released at the end of August show an increase in wait times at Winnipeg ERs and urgent care centres.
Markusa asked Pallister whether his party rushed too quickly into the reforms.
"I don't know. I think there's always room for interpretation on that, or various opinions," he said but insisted the changes are "starting to work. Don't give up."
No popularity contest
Pallister, who has said that politics is not a popularity contest, was asked if, in his quietest moments, he cares whether he is well-liked or not.
"I want to know that I can look in the mirror and know that I've done the right thing, not the easy thing," he said.
"Nobody likes to be disliked, but I learned a long time ago that if you want to be liked and the price is not doing the right thing, then you made the wrong decision."
He then blasted Kinew for trying too hard to be popular and for his pledge to offer a $350 rebate on electricity bills for every primary residence in the province.
"I think Mr. Kinew has an insatiable desire to be liked. Many people in politics do," Pallister said. "That's why he's made promises … that are not good decisions for the people of Manitoba.
"Using Hydro money to give you back a rebate is about using Hydro as an ATM for buying votes. That is not right."
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