This past week as the Manitoba election draws to a close, the governing party in Manitoba, the Conservative Party, has demonstrated its moral bankruptcy. 2 despicable political advertisements have shown that they cannot be allowed to speak for us. I will just comment on one of them today. The other one is equally pathetic.

One was a one-page ad published twice in the Free Press lauding Premier Stefanson’s promise to “stand firm” on the issue of searching the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of two slain Indigenous women.

It is one thing to come to a hard though-out position not to support the expensive search for remains. It is entirely different to brag about that to a base of voters largely unsympathetic to indigenous causes such as that of the Conservative party. That base may include  racists who will treat this as permission to turn ugly. It seems to me the Conservative Party has decided to try to electrify voters against indigenous people who don’t want to spend the money to find the remains of the two indigenous women.

Those remains are believed to be in a Winnipeg Landfill. As I bogged yesterday, I am not satisfied that such expense would be justified and that the money could be better spent elsewhere because money is never unlimited. Even governments have limited resources and must use them wisely. But I want to make it clear, that I dissent entirely from the actions of the Progressive Conservative Party. In fact, I admit I am uneasy about being on the same side as the Conservative Party on this particular issue.

It is also regrettable that their advertisements are not truthful. They claim the efforts to locate the remains will cost $184 million when the estimate they received said the cost would be between $84 and $184 million. Added to that, the ad claims the Premier took that decision “For health and safety reasons.”  This ignores the fact that some experts say it can be done safely. For these reasons Dan Lett of the Winnipeg Free Press called the ad “a symphony of misinformation.”

I also believe the advertisement  subtly alludes to last year’s Trucker Convoy, whose leader frequently used a similar statement during that strike and her subsequent arrest. I don’t think that similarity is accidental. Some members of their base will be attracted to that. I don’t believe the majority of Manitobans will agree.

Simply put, fuelling rancid debate like this is not what we expect of our Premiers. It certainly is not an act of reconciliation.

Charles Adler a long time conservative voice in Manitoba was bluntly harsh in his criticism of the Conservatives:

“I never thought the PCs would exploit murdered young Indigenous women to make some clumsy point about leadership character. The billboard which I first saw on Kenaston Boulevard just days ago, after doing a shop at Costco, made me want to buy a barf bag. “Stand Firm” falls flat. The message does not evoke strength of character. It does the opposite.Standing Firm on the remains of murdered Indigenous women is a confession of moral weakness. It illustrates the total collapse of values in today’s Manitoba Progressive Conservatives. As a person, who until this week has been for the most part, a reliable PC voter, I now view the party of Duff Roblin as the party of Maxime Bernier.”

 

Personally I  predict  the Conservatives’ attempts to sow division in Manitoba will fall flat and they will be roundly defeated in tomorrow’s election. Most Manitobans  are not Trumpsters.