Few might have foreseen it at the time, but the toppling of two statues on the Manitoba legislature grounds in July would end up having far-reaching effects on Manitoba politics.
The government’s response to it — led by remarks that were repeatedly revised — would lead to the resignation of a cabinet minister, would prompt veiled criticism of then-premier Brian Pallister from government caucus members and may have hastened Pallister’s departure from the premier’s office.
“It’s part of the moral duty of a politician, it seems to me, to not inflame social divisions but rather to seek to build consensus and support for the actions you propose to take,” said Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.
The two statues were tied with ropes and hauled to the ground during a demonstration on Canada Day over the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools.
The statue of Queen Victoria, larger and placed prominently near the main entrance to the legislature grounds, had its head removed. A smaller statue of the Queen located close to the lieutenant-governor’s residence was toppled but left largely intact.
The actions followed the discovery of unmarked graves and the remains of up to 215 children at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.
Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs was at a separate event when the statues were damaged.
“I don’t condone the vandalism … but I think the statues that were torn down, that was a symptom of a greater problem,” Dumas, the son of a residential school survivor, recalled in a recent interview.
“People have to keep in mind what was happening to our communities in that moment.”
The following week, Pallister denounced the vandalism at a lengthy press conference and called on people to build up instead of tear down. He said people who came to Canada, both before and after it was a country, did not come to destroy but to build communities, farms, businesses and churches.
The comments were widely condemned as a defence of colonialism. Pallister’s Indigenous affairs minister, Eileen Clarke, resigned from the Progressive Conservative cabinet. Some caucus members took to social media to distance themselves from the remarks.
Clarke’s replacement, Alan Lagimodiere, immediately landed in hot water when he said the original intentions behind residential schools were not all bad. While Lagimodiere and Pallister both apologized, the fallout continued as two Indigenous men resigned from government-appointed economic development agencies.
Pallister said at the time he was not speaking in defence of colonialism, that he was appealing to all people to work together, and his words were misunderstood and torqued by the media.
He has since revealed the comments had undergone several changes as part of a prepared statement.
“It was the fifth draft of that text,” Pallister said in an interview with The Canadian Press shortly before he left office.
“And the third draft had ‘the people who came here long before there was a Canada — Indigenous, non-Indigenous and Metis — didn’t come to destroy, they came to build’, and I took it out because it wasn’t inclusive enough.”
Some people wrongly assumed that in the final draft he used, he was saying only non-Indigenous people were builders, Pallister said, when he meant everyone.
Pallister left that July 7 press conference feeling he had spoken to unify people, unaware of the anger that awaited him.
“When we left the press conference, my assistant said ‘that’s the best press conference you’ve ever done.”‘
While Pallister had hinted at leaving politics before the end of his term in 2023, he was widely expected to stay on for some time. He had said he would be premier until the pandemic ended and had talked about hosting his fellow premiers at a conference planned for October.
He surprised many with a resignation announcement in August at the start of a Tory caucus retreat in Brandon, Man.
As for the statues, the government is still working to determine whether they will be repaired and where they might be located. The government had earlier committed to having a memorial to Chief Peguis, which would be the first statue of a First Nations person on the legislature grounds.
That project is still underway and will be welcomed by Dumas.
“I think this is an opportune time to correct some of the historic disrespect that has happened … and actually create some statues that are truly reflective of what Manitoba truly is.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 28, 2021.
FREDERICTON – A look at Blaine Higgs, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.
Born: March 1, 1954.
Early years: The son of a customs officer, he grew up in Forest City, N.B., near the Canada-U.S. border.
Education: Graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1977.
Family: Married his high-school sweetheart, Marcia, and settled in Saint John, N.B., where they had four daughters: Lindsey, Laura, Sarah and Rachel.
Before politics: Hired by Irving Oil a week after he graduated from university and was eventually promoted to director of distribution. Worked for 33 years at the company.
Politics: Elected to the legislature in 2010 and later served as finance minister under former Progressive Conservative Premier David Alward. Elected Tory leader in 2016 and has been premier since 2018.
Quote: “I’ve always felt parents should play the main role in raising children. No one is denying gender diversity is real. But we need to figure out how to manage it.” — Blaine Higgs in a year-end interview in 2023, explaining changes to school policies about gender identity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
GATINEAU, Que. – Treasury Board President Anita Anand will take on the additional role of transport minister this afternoon, after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet to run for the Quebec Liberal leadership.
A government source who was not authorized to speak publicly says Anand will be sworn in at a small ceremony at Rideau Hall.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will become the government’s new Quebec lieutenant, but he is not expected to be at the ceremony because that is not an official role in cabinet.
Rodriguez announced this morning that he’s leaving cabinet and the federal Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent member of Parliament until January.
That’s when the Quebec Liberal leadership race is set to officially begin.
Rodriguez says sitting as an Independent will allow him to focus on his own vision, but he plans to vote with the Liberals on a non-confidence motion next week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
