Manitoba NDP leader Greg Selinger gives his victory speech at party headquarters in Winnipeg after he was declared winner of the province's election on Oct. 4, 2011.JOHN WOODS/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Greg Selinger has just won a massive majority in Manitoba, but he's not about to start throwing his political weight around.
One day after his New Democrats captured a fourth straight majority government, taking an NDP-record 37 out of 57 seats, Mr. Selinger talked about national interests as opposed to pushing his own province's agenda. "It's part of our ongoing role," he said Wednesday. "There's still a lot of economic fragility out there in the world and I would hope that we would continue to want to work together as first ministers all across the country on what's best for Canada and how we can keep the country prospering."
Even on the touchy topic of the future of the Canadian Wheat Board, which the federal government wants to dismantle, Mr. Selinger took a measured approach and seemed almost resigned to losing the battle. Ottawa plans to introduce legislation next year to remove the Wheat Board's 75-year old monopoly over the sale of all wheat grown in Western Canada. Mr. Selinger has opposed that decision, arguing it will cost jobs at the board's head office in Winnipeg and hurt small farmers.
On Wednesday, he conceded there is little he can do to stop the government but he hopes to work out details that will benefit Manitoba. "Certainly they have a majority and if they want to pass that bill they can do that," he said. "But we have a responsibility to make sure that Manitoba comes out of this better off than it was before."
He'll meet Stephen Harper Sunday, when the Prime Minister is in Winnipeg for the first game of the Winnipeg Jets. Topics for discussion will included the economy and flood compensation. But not, it appears, the Wheat Board. "We've already conversed on that," Mr. Selinger said. "He knows our views on that quite clearly."
Overall, he said he has a good rapport with Mr. Harper. "We've been able to talk to each another, in my view, quite rationally about the priorities that need to be addressed."
Mr. Selinger is in an intriguing position with regard to the federal Tories. While voters clearly prefer an NDP provincial government, they voted overwhelmingly for the federal Conservatives last May, delivering 11 out of 14 seats to Mr. Harper. And yet Mr. Selinger and Mr. Harper are alike in many ways. Both have an academic bent and an interest in economics. (Mr. Selinger is a former provincial finance minister.) They have also both just won strong majorities and face little political opposition.
As for the NDP nationally, Mr. Selinger played down the significance of his victory for the party, saying it was up to others to analyze that. He also declined to comment on the federal NDP leadership race. "Our accomplishment last night was for Manitoba and it was decided by Manitobans. Yesterday was Manitoba's day, it wasn't politicians' day."
He had to be reminded that last summer he dedicated the NDP campaign to the memory of former federal NDP leader Jack Layton. "We did," he acknowledged. "Jack played a very important role in the last federal election and he was a symbol of hope for the whole country," he said.
While Mr. Selinger struck a conciliatory tone, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz did not. Mr. Ritz, a Saskatchewan MP, has been leading the government's charge to dismantle the Wheat Board and he has sparred repeatedly with CWB officials and provincial politicians. He kept that up Wednesday, saying in the House of Commons that when it comes to the board's future: "I prefer to work with the farmers of Manitoba than an NDP government that has gone beyond its best-before date."
With a report from Steven Chase
Editor's note: an earlier version of this story online and in Thursday's newspaper incorrectly stated in which province Gerry Ritz represented a riding. Mr. Ritz is a Saskatchewan MP. This version has been corrected.
Paul Waldie