The Black Rod

Manitoba political pundits feel hornswoggled, hookwinked and bamboozled. For five months they've been covering the ins and outs and ups and downs of an alleged revolt of a handful of NDP cabinet ministers against Premier Greg Selinger. It was supposed to culminate Sunday in the ouster of Selinger as leader of the party when delegates to a party convention chose one or the other of two challengers for his job. Except that he won. By a narrow margin, sure.  But he won. The pundits gave out a collective gasp. This wasn't supposed to happen. Selinger was supposed to quit or be defeated. This was the worst outcome possible for the NDP -- a permanently split party and an invigorated Opposition. "So what exactly was the point of all that again?... In one sense, the Manitoba NDP are back to square one, exactly where they were six months ago." said  Curtis Brown, vice-president of pollsters Probe Research Inc. Who saw that coming? Well, we ...

Let's play charades.  We'll start. Four  words. Washing hands. Wringing.  Washing.  Soap. Dirty hands. Dirty. Okay, next word. Stripper pole. Pole. Pole...ish. No.  Start over.  Vote.  Voting.  Ballot. Oh, Pole-itics. Next word. Here. Now. Everywhere?   Map. Man. Manitoba! Dirtiest Politician in Manitoba! GREG SELINGER!!!! Do we win?   No. With Greg Selinger, everbody loses. In less than a week,  the Dipper Follies has become the best show in town, with everyone glued to their radio and television sets for the latest twist and turn. What melodrama!   Five dissident MLA's.  Careers on the line. Stare-downs. Ultimatums. Veilled threats of retaliation.  A resignation expected yesterday, today, tomorrow. Like Scandal, the TV show? No, more like NDP Friends, with Stan Struthers in the Joey role.   The dissidents are called the Rebel Five i...

Like most lawbreakers, Greg Selinger, Stan Struthers and Theresa Oswald think they're smarter than everyone else. In their arrogance, they're convinced the law doesn't apply to them. They can always rely on their apologists to run interference for them, whether it's Winnipeg Free Press columnist Dan Lett, inventing excuses for why the NDP needs to break the law, or Legislature reporter Bruce Owen, musing over whether breaking the law is wrong if government members do it. Make no mistake, the Premier of the province, Greg Selinger, has broken the law. He`s done it blatantly in the belief that nobody can do anything about it. He`s declared that he and the NDP are above the laws of Manitoba. But the law is clear: C.C.S.M. c. B5 The Balanced Budget, Fiscal Management and Taxpayer Accountability Act PART 2 TAX REFERENDUM REQUIREMENT Referendum required for tax changes 10(1) Subject to subsection (2), the government shall not present t...

When Premier Greg Selinger released a list of 13 NDP MLA's who got free tickets to Winnipeg Jets games he forgot one name -- his own. On Oct. 9, 2011, the Winnipeg Jets played their home opener and Greg Selinger was among the invited guests, along with former NDP Premier Gary Doer and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Blogger Allison Pattison, a Creative Communications student at Red River College, wrote about Selinger's attendance at the game. http://passittopatty.blogspot.com/2011/10/fans-still-love-ya-jets.html . "The MTS Centre was packed to the roof. Literally. I would say about 80% of the fans in there were in white, which was a good thing because that means when the Jets request a white-out, fans will know what to do." "The game started off with a ceremonial puck drop; Rick Rypien's mom had the honour." "Along with Rypien's mom in attendance were a few other known names. Our Prime Minister Stephen ...

So the NDP got caught cheating in the provincial election. Gee, what else is new? When grinning Greg Selinger, Manitoba's dirtiest politician, joined Winnipeg Jets co-owner Mark Chipman to announce a mentoring program for high school students, it wasn't the first time the NDP broke the law during this campaign. And it wasn't an accident. Manitoba's Election Financing Act prohibits governments from publishing or advertising any information about its programs or activities starting 90 days before an election. The Winnipeg Jets/mentoring breach only made the news because Liberal leader Jon Gerrard officially complained to Elections Manitoba. But if the mainstream media had done their research, they would have known that Local Government Minister Ron Lemieux is already being investigated for breaking the same law in mid-August. Lemieux handed a government cheque for $15,000 to the Landmark Friendship Festival for organizers to buy new playground equipmen...

Somebody must have been spiking the coffee at the Winnipeg Free Press with truth serum this week. How else to explain the confessions that spilled out from reporters covering important beats, declarations that explain why the newspaper has become a worthless read. Legislature reporter Bruce Owen wrote Friday that Question Period, the meat and potatoes of his beat, bores him to tears. (Its) "a great time for me to catch up on email. That’s because, sitting up in the media perch, there’s not that much else to do." he said. "Other reporters check up on the Facebook profiles and one religiously plays BrickBreaker on his Blackberry. He’s gotten pretty good at it." Two days earlier, Owen's colleague, education reporter Nick Martin, made his own revelation on his little-read newspaper-sponsored blog. "I rarely attend board meetings anymore," he wrote. "It’s just not worth my time, or my employer’s time..." Oh? Doesn't the ...

Four months from now a picket line will be thrown up around the University of Manitoba. It will be an invisible picket line but a strong one nevertheless, a line of moral suasion that will turn the university into an academic pariah across Canada and around the world. This is the legacy of Dr. Brian Postl, the former CEO of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the new Dean of Medicine. Thanks for nothing Bri. The reason for the censure of the U of M is contained in a report issued Wednesday by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) into the unjust dismissal of Dr. Larry Reynolds, the former Head of Family Medicine at the university. It's a tale of Machiavellian machinations by Postl and his minions, aided and abetted by the former Dean of Medicine who had his own bone to pick with Dr. Reynolds, all of whom felt the rules didn't apply to them. It's a tale you didn't read in the mainstream press . Reynolds, says the CAUT re...