PCs to approve new party leadership rules to replace those that caused 'hurt, anger and frustration' in 2021

Manitoba Progressive Conservatives plan to hold a January vote on new rules for a leadership race the party president expects to take place in late 2024.

The party's executive council will meet on Dec. 16 to consider a package of new rules and then bring those rules before all PC members for a vote on Jan. 13, party president Brent Pooles said in an interview on Thursday.

The new rules would pave the way for party leader Heather Stefanson, the former Manitoba premier, to resign without triggering a PC leadership race under the same rules that led to a bitterly contested race in 2021.

"On Jan. 13, we can move forward with the leadership under new rules for the party," Pooles said Thursday in a telephone interview. "If our leader had stepped down on election night or steps down next week, we're under the auspices of the old rules, which we don't want and nobody wants."

Those rules came under heavy fire following the PC leadership race in 2021, when Stefanson defeated former Conservative MP Shelly Glover 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.

Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice James Edmond eventually dismissed Glover's effort but agreed there were irregularities in the PC leadership contest that fall.

A review of that contest, presented to party members in April 2023, concluded the 2021 election suffered from numerous issues that "led to a great deal of frustration, hurt and anger," according to Lawrence Toet and Grant Stefanson, the authors of the review of the leadership contest.

Those issues included a time frame that was too short, insufficient resources to keep tabs on new members and ensure they all received ballots and the party's failure to hire a third party to keep track of marked ballots, Toet and Stefanson concluded.

They also warned the existing party leadership rules left the Progressive Conservatives prone to a takeover by people who do not hold the interests of all Manitobans at heart.

"The PC Party is a grassroots organization. It is important that members are enfranchised and empowered during leadership selection processes," they wrote.

"It is also important to protect the PC Party from potentially being hijacked by outside interests including single or special interest groups."

To prevent the party from a future takeover, Toet and Stefanson recommended the party make "constitutional amendments designed to further the goals of the PC Party of inclusiveness and an expanded membership base."

Party president Pooles said the PCs did not adopt new rules at its annual general meeting in April because there was no imminent need to hold a leadership contest.

That need became apparent on Oct. 3, when the party lost the provincial election to the NDP and Heather Stefanson announced she would resign.

Three days later, on Oct. 6, the PCs said Stefanson would stay on as party leader for a year to 18 months. Stefanson did not challenge that timeline in an interview with CBC News one week later.

She walked that back on Wednesday, declaring she may resign following the January vote on new party leadership rules.

"Possibly. We'll see. We'll determine at the time," Stefanson told reporters.

Pooles said Stefanson could appoint an interim leader if she does choose to resign in January.

"It's totally up to her. It's her timeline," he said.

That leader may not need to be in place for more than 11 months.

"We're still looking at the fall for having the leadership," said Pooles, referring to 2024.