Kinew's centrist political balancing act a long way from Pallister's scorched-earth production

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

Opinion
Former NDP executive Chris Wiebe accused Premier Wab Kinew this week of governing more like a conservative than a New Democrat.
It's a bit of a stretch.
Wiebe, who ran unsuccessfully for the party in Dawson Trail during the 2023 provincial election, is so upset with Kinew, he quit the party in March.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Premier Wab Kinew has taken a page from former NDP premier Gary Doer's political playbook by trying to strike a balance between keeping his partisan base happy and appeasing the business community and centrist voters.
The University of Winnipeg professor says the NDP premier's recent comments about wanting to build an oil or gas pipeline in the North is so off-base with the party's progressive principles that he felt he had to speak out.
But is Wiebe correct in his assertions, including his claim that Kinew is governing like former Tory premier Brian Pallister, who chopped hospital funding, slashed the public service and froze City of Winnipeg grants for multiple years?
The evidence would suggest otherwise.
There's no doubt Kinew has taken a page from former NDP premier Gary Doer's political playbook by trying to strike a balance between keeping his partisan base happy and appeasing the business community and centrist voters. It worked well for Doer and it seems to be doing the trick for Kinew.
It's true, Kinew did keep most of the former Tory government's income tax cuts. He also temporarily eliminated the fuel tax last year (he brought in a permanent, but much smaller fuel tax cut in the 2025 budget).
Kinew also threw business a bone by raising the threshold for the Health and Post Secondary Education Tax Levy (the so-called payroll tax). And he maintained some semblance of the former government's education property tax rebate, although he made it less generous.
Also, after criticizing the Tories for maintaining a fully-private lab service for medical tests while in opposition, the NDP under Kinew just signed a new five-year contract with Dynacare — a private, for-profit company.
But to say the NDP is governing like conservatives and abandoning its party roots is a reach.
Let's start with taxes. While Kinew maintained the Tories' income tax cuts, he also quietly de-indexed income tax brackets this year.
That means Manitobans who receive cost-of-living wage increases will see a larger chunk of their income taxed at higher rates. That's a tax hike, just a less-visible one.
According to the 2025 budget, the move will generate $82 million a year in additional government revenue.
Meanwhile, the province under Kinew has been spending liberally, as NDP governments often do. The NDP is spending billions more than the former Tory administration ever did. Overall spending is up nearly 14 per cent compared to the last PC budget in 2023. That's not a tweak — it's a spending spree.
Wiebe described the NDP's fiscal policies as austere. Either he's spent little time going through the last two provincial budgets, or he doesn't know how to read them.
Some of the NDP's heavy spending is needed, especially after years of cuts under the former PC government. Health care, education and infrastructure are in desperate need of additional resources.
Whether it's too much or too little, it's definitely not austere. The party's appetite for public-sector expansion and left-leaning policies has been in full swing since Kinew was sworn into office in October 2023.
Nowhere is that more obvious than the pro-union labour legislation the NDP brought in last year, including the elimination of secret-ballot voting during certification drives — making it easier to unionize workplaces — and a ban on replacement workers during strikes or lockouts.
The NDP changes to the Labour Relations Act also prevent workers from crossing a picket line if they choose to work during a strike, a significant departure from what many considered to be balanced labour laws in Manitoba pre-Kinew. It's definitely not how conservatives would govern.
Even Doer didn't dare enact anti-scab legislation, despite fierce lobbying from organized labour at the time.
Kinew also announced plans to open Manitoba's first supervised consumption site, vowed to end chronic homelessness and has budgeted $30 million for new social housing projects — hardly the kind of policies one would expect from a Tory government.
Just this week the NDP announced plans to build a $1-billion centre for CancerCare Manitoba, something the former PC government cancelled.
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Even Kinew's musings about supporting a northern oil or gas pipeline shouldn't distract from the bigger picture. The pipeline talk is just that: talk. There's no plan, no clear investor interest, and no timeline.
It's more likely a strategic communications move than a genuine pivot to energy development.
If anything, the pipeline talk is symbolic of the political balancing act Kinew is trying to pull off: keeping progressives happy while reassuring rural and suburban voters he won't scare off investment or business.
But governing more like a conservative than a New Democrat? I think not.
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Tom BrodbeckColumnist
Tom Brodbeck is a columnist with the Free Press and has over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.
Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press's editing team reviews Tom's columns before they are posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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