Manitoba's New Premier

Yesterday, the Bolsheviks announced their last budget before they’re booted out of office in October. To no one’s surprise, they’re leaving us with a legacy of high taxes and debt that has made us the armpit of North America. Even Saskatchewan, forever the butt of running jokes in Manitoba, has passed us by leaps and bounds.

So what’s coming next?

Welcome future Premier Hugh McFadyen, a man whose single biggest appeal to voters is that he’s not a member of the Bolshevik Party. Otherwise, as a former friend of mine once called him, he’s a twit.

Years ago, after Premier Gary Filmon was defeated, the PC Party of Manitoba selected a new, energetic, young leader whom they presumably hoped would grow into the role and lead them back into power.

He’s going to lead them back into power all right, but two terms too late. More importantly, he hasn’t grown into the role at all. His performance has been so abysmal that the Bolsheviks have won seats in ridings where the PC’s should have been able to win running a rhinoceros as a candidate. If a Bolshevik stands up and says that 2+2=4, you can rest assured he’ll be there to criticize, but he offers no concrete policies as alternatives.

The Bolshevik government has been ripe for the picking over their three terms in office and McFadyen has done little to make headway in opposition. He stands poised as Manitoba’s next premier only because the Bolsheviks have been so bad that he looks better by comparison.

Sadly, among members of the PC Party of Manitoba, it appears as though loyalty to the leader is more important than the best interests of the party. Manitobans are going to pay the price for this misguided loyalty.

Vision. Change. Progress. McFadyen 2011.

There will be change, to be sure, but the other two are left as an exercise for the reader.

If you’re a fan of tax and spend government or a big union boss, you won’t have long to wait before your comrades are back in power.

Maybe by then, the PC’s will figure out that Hugh McFadyen is not the answer. Only when they select a credible leader can Manitoba have a chance to overcome the crippling effects of socialism and get itself off the federal welfare roll.