Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have narrowly chosen Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan to function the get together’s new chief.
After a six-month management contest, Khan defeated Wally Daudrich, who owns a resort and ecotourism enterprise in Churchill, in a vote performed via mail-in ballots. Khan gained 2,198 factors within the weighted poll to Daudrich’s 2,163, the Official Opposition get together introduced Saturday on the Radisson Lodge in downtown Winnipeg.
Khan’s victory gave him 50.4 per cent of the accessible factors.
The management contest was sparked when former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson stepped down as party leader in early 2024, months after her PCs misplaced the autumn 2023 provincial election to Wab Kinew’s NDP.
Following her departure, the get together appointed Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko as interim chief and selected a prolonged contest to pick a brand new everlasting one.
The get together gave potential contestants six months to enroll in the race and one other six months to marketing campaign, partly to keep away from a repeat of the get together’s disputed 2021 leadership race between Stefanson and former Conservative MP Shelly Glover.
Khan, who was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in a 2022 byelection, was endorsed by 10 out of 20 members of the PC caucus forward of Saturday’s vote.
Throughout the prolonged management race, he positioned himself as higher capable of lead the opposition get together out of the political wilderness on the premise he already has a seat within the legislature.
Khan made few coverage bulletins through the marketing campaign. He promised to pursue extra public-private partnerships throughout the health-care system and supply municipalities with an undisclosed portion of provincial gross sales tax income.
Khan turns into the primary Muslim in addition to the primary Canadian from a South Asian ethnic background to steer the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives.
Daudrich, who plans to run within the forthcoming Manitoba byelection in Spruce Woods, didn’t obtain endorsements from any members of the PC caucus. Early within the marketing campaign, he described some PC MLAs as lazy and however declined to title the elected officers in query.
Throughout the marketing campaign, Daudrich positioned himself because the extra conservative of the 2 candidates and mused about eradicating the phrase “progressive” from the get together title.
Daudrich promised to fast-track the event of Manitoba mines and construct a second port on Hudson Bay, claiming European clients would foot the invoice for the proposed megaproject.
The Progressive Conservatives presently maintain 20 seats within the 57-seat Manitoba Legislature, whereas the governing NDP holds 34.
A complete of 10,999 PC members have been eligible to vote within the 2025 management race. Brad Zander, chair of the get together’s management choice committee, stated 7,108 members accomplished ballots and 6,750 of these have been verified by get together officers.
That translated into 4,362 votes underneath a weighted system that prevented candidates from stacking votes inside a single Manitoba constituency affiliation.
The 6,750 ballots forged within the 2025 PC management race falls in need of the 16,807 ballots submitted within the 2021 PC management race, which noticed Stefanson defeat former Conservative MP Shelly Glover by 363 votes.
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