Could the province’s next premier hail from northern Manitoba?
According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Thompson MLA Steve Ashton is likely to survive the first ballot at the NDP leadership contest on March 8.
That would see Ashton square off in the second ballot against either his boss, Premier Greg Selinger, or fellow leadership hopeful Theresa Oswald.
The Free Press based its prediction on an examination of delegate counts and interviews with party insiders.
“Steve is going to come in first [in the first ballot],” an unnamed NDP strategist told the newspaper last week.
Winnipeg political scientist Paul Thomas, meanwhile, told the newspaper that while he considers the race too close to call, Ashton has the advantage of being consistently underestimated.
Last chance?
Some observers see this as Ashton’s last chance to helm his party and province. Now 58, he failed in the 2009 leadership bid that saw Selinger replace the outgoing Gary Doer.
Should he win the leadership this time, Ashton is vowing to hold a referendum on the controversial PST increase of 2013. He has also pledged to lobby Ottawa for a national childcare program, and to move more government offices to rural Manitoba.
Ashton is Manitoba’s longest-serving MLA, having been elected to the legislature in 1981. He is the father of Churchill MP Niki Ashton.
Flin Flon MLA Clarence Pettersen, a New Democrat, is endorsing Oswald, a Winnipeg MLA he recently described as “a good leader” who has “balls.”
