Former PC leadership candidate warns party not to adopt new rules drawn up after messy 2021 race

Former Manitoba Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Shelly Glover is warning the party not to adopt new leadership-contest rules drawn up to prevent another chaotic race like the one she disputed in court two years ago.

The Manitoba PC party's executive council will meet on Dec. 16 to consider a package of new rules created with the intent of preventing problems such as the ones that plagued the party's 2021 contest, which Glover lost to Heather Stefanson, the former premier, by 363 votes.

Glover took the Progressive Conservative Party to court in an effort to overturn that election, alleging irregularities that included the party's failure to send ballots to all party members in time to vote. Justice James Edmond eventually dismissed Glover's complaint but agreed there were problems in the leadership contest.

The new package of rules, which are slated to come before all PC members on Jan. 13, include a weighted points system for Manitoba's 57 PC constituency associations.

That system would cap the number of points allotted to constituencies with many PC voters, and bring up the floor for those with few PC voters.

Glover charges the points system will punish the most active, well-run PC constituency associations, such as the one in Steinbach, in favour of constituency associations where there are far fewer PC members, such as the inner-city Winnipeg constituency of Point Douglas.

"Most of our well-tended-to ridings will suffer," Glover said in an interview. "Those who work hard and have maintained their lists, have volunteers that work hard, they will suffer."

In a leadership review report, party members Lawrence Toet and Grant Stefanson said the new rules are designed "to protect the PC Party from potentially being hijacked by outside interests including single or special interest groups."

Glover claims the new rules were put in place to allow established party members in Winnipeg to control the outcome of future leadership races — something she alleges took place at the outset of the 2021 race, which was held over a two-month timeframe.

"I would feel much better about this if I didn't see the new rules, which are just going to let the rich white boys do this all over again," Glover said.

Manitoba PC director Michelle Halverson declined to comment on Glover's statements and allegations.

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba, has a different take on the proposed new PC leadership rules.

Thomas says the weighting component of the rules appears to be intended to prevent candidates from stacking the nomination process.

The proposed points system, he added, will cap the influence of constituencies where leadership contenders recruit short-term members who outnumber longer term volunteers who have kept the party running at the local level.  

"You don't want a party excessively concentrated in rural areas or overly dominated by Winnipeg constituencies," Thomas said in an interview.

Thomas said people can perceive a bias in any set of rules and said the party has to demonstrate the votes of their members matter.

He also said he is not surprised Glover remains embittered following her experience during the 2021 Progressive Conservative leadership race.

"She's not afraid of being outspoken," Thomas said.

Glover said she is speaking out to improve democracy within the PC party and in Manitoba as a whole. She said she has no interest in running for PC leader ever again, and does not believe the party would permit her to do so, anyway.

The former MP said she only decided to run to become provincial party leader in 2021 to ensure Stefanson had competition.

"For me, it was never about the winning, right? For me it was always about fighting corruption, injustice and [for] my conservative values."

Glover is no longer a Progressive Conservative. She said she cancelled her party membership during the 2023 provincial election campaign, which saw the party employ aggressive attack ads and campaign for votes on the basis of its opposition to searching the Prairie Green landfill.

"I was so disgusted with the campaign," said Glover, adding her voice to a list of critics that includes PC president Brent Pooles, PC campaign co-chair Candice Bergen and defeated PC Riel incumbent candidate Rochelle Squires.

"I tore up my membership when I read about some of the things that were being said. When I saw some of the commercials, I was like, 'Oh my God.'"

Glover said she holds Stefanson responsible for the campaign and rejects a post-election apology from the PC leader.

"The candidate always has the last say," Glover said.  "They will always try to blame people other than the person who has the most power, which is the candidate, and I saw the candidate repeat the exact same things.

"I saw MLAs repeat the exact same messages and I tore up my membership. I called in and I said cancel my membership, I cannot support this."

Glover, who spent nearly seven years serving alongside prime minister Stephen Harper as a Conservative MP, said she ended up voting NDP in the 2023 provincial election.

"I voted for who was the best in my riding, and that just happened to be Jamie Moses," she said of the St. Vital MLA.

Stefanson declined to comment on Glover's statements.