Pallister suggests NDP would be to blame for Tories calling a spring election

For the first time, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has offered a possible rationale for calling an election this spring.

Pallister said he isn't planning on dropping the writ before July, but might change his mind if the New Democrats scuttle his plans to cut the Provincial Sales Tax by one per cent — which he previously said was impossible for the Opposition to do.

"If they try to delay the PST reduction or not support the bill, that's a serious concern," Pallister told CBC Manitoba's Information Radio host Marcy Markusa. 

"Manitobans elected us to keep our promises and we're going to keep our promises — and we need that bill to pass."

It's up to the NDP, Pallister says

Before casting blame toward the NDP, Pallister said he's not inclined to go the polls once spring flooding subsides.

"I don't think so," he told Markusa in an interview that aired Friday morning. "Again, I don't know everything that's going to happen with the NDP."

The fixed-date legislation says the next provincial election is set for Oct. 6, 2020, but the premier can defy that date.

Pallister is actually contradicting himself by saying the planned tax cut cannot take effect by July 1 unless the appropriate legislation passes by then. Pallister previously told reporters the bill doesn't need to become law for the PST to drop to seven per cent.

It's not accurate and he knows it's not accurate. He's trying to lay the groundwork for an early election- NDP Leader Wab Kinew

The New Democrats have the right to hold over a number of bills until the next legislative session in the fall. The party has not said if the bill that enacts the PST cut will be among them.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew says the government is giving him too much credit.

"The premier is somehow suggesting that the timing of an election is up to me. I just want to clarify that if it's up to me, we will respect the fixed election date law, unequivocally," Kinew said.

He says Pallister's latest attack line is an attempt to "manufacture a crisis" to somehow force an election on Manitobans.

Radio comments 'a lie'

"What he's saying on the radio today is a lie. It's not accurate and he knows it's not accurate. He's trying to lay the groundwork for an early election," Kinew said.

Kinew says the billboards around Winnipeg trumpeting the PST cut on July 1 do not contain an asterisk, because it's happening no matter what his party does.

Asked whether he would consider letting the budget bill pass if the government removed the contentious clause about eliminating a subsidy on campaign expenses, Kinew said it is an idea worth considering. 

"The concern with BITSA [the budget bill] is not what the premier is talking on the radio about this morning. The concern with BITSA that I have, and that my caucus has, is that there's a clause buried in the back of that bill that's very undemocratic and will harm participation from many people who have been marginalized."

The NDP says eliminating the subsidy would make it harder for lower-income people to run for office, because of fear they would carry large campaign debts. Pallister has said that taxpayers shouldn't reimburse political parties. 

Speaking to media at his office Friday, Kinew said he wants an all-party committee to be struck to devise fair election financing rules.

Pallister's new argument that the bill must pass for the PST reduction to be enacted is the same tactic employed by Finance Minister Scott Fielding, who first pointed his finger at opposition delays earlier this week.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont called Fielding's comments another example of Pallister's government hinting at an impending visit to the polls.

Pallister said in his interview Friday that people want to believe governments will honour their promises.

PST promise should be kept: Pallister

"Whether it's federal [governments] or outside in the U.S. and elsewhere, people are wondering if they can trust anybody to keep their word anymore," he said.

On Monday, Pallister eased speculation of an imminent election by saying he plans to give his opponents a heads-up before calling voters to the polls.

He said he would give Kinew and Lamont 90-day notice of an election "if possible," but didn't specify what would make the notice impossible to provide.

"I … assured Mr. Kinew and Mr. Lamont that I have no intentions of snapping an election call to take advantage of their preparedness or their level of preparedness," Pallister told reporters on Monday.

"It would be my view that governments shouldn't try to get advantage by surprising somebody. That's not my intention."

A 90-day warning would essentially give the other parties two months to prepare for the start of an election campaign, since campaigns cannot be longer than 34 days under provincial law.

Pallister has fuelled suggestions that an election would arrive well before the fixed election date.

He's said he's sympathetic to Manitobans who he says have told him a provincial election wouldn't jive with the year-long celebration in 2020 coinciding with the province's 150th birthday.

Pallister also dismissed the language of a fixed election date as more like a "drop-dead date."