Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 31, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A15 winnipegfreepress. com NDP LEADERSHIP RACE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 A 15 O NE appears at times to be more off- the- cuff than organized, one appears to be more detail- oriented and one appears to be too busy being premier. These are the traits of each of the NDP leadership candidates midway through the campaign to decide who'll lead the party into the next election. Steve Ashton can perhaps be described as a talking encyclopedia of political history with about 34 years under his belt as the MLA from Thompson - he doesn't need speaking notes. Theresa Oswald, the renegade cabinet minister, has come across as a tad more polished, but that might be due to the fact she's got a big stable of experienced political staffers coiffing her campaign. Unlike Oswald and Ashton, Premier Greg Selinger has not made bold announcements and perhaps won't until the hours before the NDP decides March 8 which of the three should captain their ship. " I have a proven track record of moving the province forward," Selinger said when he kicked off his leadership campaign Jan. 10. That was pretty much all he's said to date regarding the tactics he'll take to keep his job. Ashton and Oswald toured western Manitoba this week and both made campaign announcements in Winnipeg on Friday. TRAIL MIX NDP leadership hopefuls take different approaches in their campaigns By Bruce Owen and Larry Kusch But the premier has kept a relatively low profile, at least as a candidate. In the past month, he's travelled to the province's north to apologize to First Nations about the negative impact of hydroelectric development, made a brief appearance to support the renewed bid for the United Nations world heritage site designation for the east side of the province, and has been in Ottawa the past two days at a meeting of other provincial and territorial leaders. The only sign Selinger is campaigning is on his leadership Twitter profile @ GregSelinger_ 15, which as of Friday only had 25 tweets, (@ TheresaOswaldMB had 232 tweets and @ SteveAshtonMB has 1,003, but he's been tweeting as an MLA since Nov. 3, 2013). Selinger has also said he would " advocate the policies and ideas" as set down in his government's throne speech last fall as part of his bid to stay in the premier's office. " The first duty is to govern," he told reporters. University of Manitoba political scientist Royce Koop said Selinger's low profile could be taken a couple of ways. Koop said Selinger carries the reputation of being a big taxer and spender, and if he puts himself out there making promises like Oswald and Ashton, that only plays into the hands of his critics. " He's in a tough spot, and it kind of explains the reticence to make the big announcements that the challengers are making," Koop said. " There's either a strategy behind this or else he's given up, and he hasn't given up. He's a fighter." At the same time, Selinger's behaviour could also be betraying his confidence he's winning the race. " I think he might be doing better than we think he is," he said. " Or, at least, he thinks he's doing better than everyone thinks he is." Koop said if Selinger's campaign team thought he was falling behind Ashton and Oswald, they'd be putting him in front of the TV cameras a lot more often. " It's one thing to draw on your strengths as an incumbent - it's another to do what he's doing, which is to take quite a relaxed approach to the campaign," he said. " What it says to me is that he feels good, he feels confident." Ashton and Oswald, on the other hand, have about two campaign events per week. Oswald, as of late, has hosted successive events on Sunday afternoons to take advantage of a typically slow news day and get good placement of her announcements in the Monday newspapers. She also benefits from electronic news coverage Sunday evenings and Monday mornings. Ashton, meanwhile, likes to strike on Fridays to take immediate advantage of web and TV news coverage and the Saturday Free Press . Koop also said Ashton appeals more to the party's left, so there is less of a concern for him and his team to cost out his announcements. He said Oswald is positioning herself more as a centrist, so there is pressure on her to put a dollar amount to her promises. He added in the coming days and weeks leading up to March 8, Manitobans may see less of Oswald and Ashton as their campaigns focus more on mobilizing their supporters. Meetings start Feb. 6 to pick delegates to send to the leadership vote. " You can do that pretty quietly," he said. " There's no reason to run a flashy campaign." Ashton's campaign: Ashton pledged Friday if he becomes the province's next premier, he would bring in new actions to end sexual violence against women. Ashton said that includes making the issue of consent part of the school curriculum and at post- secondary institutions. " We need to ensure that right from an early age that our kids know what consent is," Ashton said, his daughter, Churchill MP Niki Ashton, beside him. " Yes means yes, no means no. To my mind, that's where you start shifting the culture." He also said if he becomes premier, he would launch a public- awareness campaign to address sexual violence against women and make more funding available for social research and public advocacy to advance an agenda by and for women. The latter would add about $ 1 million to the budget, he said. Ashton's position on women's rights came two days after leadership hopeful Theresa Oswald led a discussion on Twitter on women's rights under the hashtag # idea4equality. The discussion included adding consent to the school curriculum and addressing the wage gap between men and women. Ashton also warned women's rights are not on the agenda of Opposition Leader Brian Pallister. The MLA for Thompson again brought up a comment made by Pallister in 2005 in which he described women as " fickle." " Do you think that Brian Pallister and the PCs have any sense of the equality of women with an attitude like that?" Ashton said. " I don't think so." Niki Ashton said she supported her father's agenda on sexual violence and breaking the silence that it exists. Oswald's campaign: Oswald said a government she leads would increase supports for new Canadians, including a new pilot project to help school- age kids adjust to Manitoba classrooms. " It's incredibly difficult to make the transition into a new country and simply join the age- appropriate Manitoba classroom," Oswald told reporters Friday. " Many of these individuals have faced significant disruptions in their learning, and oftentimes have lived through unspeakably horrific situations. Without the right supports, these transitions can be almost impossible." Oswald is proposing a three- year pilot program that would ease the transition for school- aged refugees by offering personalized learning, as well as comprehensive counselling services and health care. Meanwhile, she said, she would also maintain a second pilot project - Recognition Counts! - that offers small loans to immigrants to help get their overseas credentials recognized so they can practise their profession in Canada. Oswald said she would also restore Englishlanguage training opportunities for people who lost access after Ottawa took over immigration- settlement supports. She said she would also hire four more immigration officers to speed up processing times for immigration applicants under the Provincial Nominee Program. And she would push Ottawa to lift the cap so that more immigrants can settle in Manitoba and fill the need for skilled workers. Currently, the federal government caps the number of immigrants the province can nominate at 5,000. bruce. owen@ freepress. mb. ca larry. kusch@ freepress. mb. ca RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Khadija Hassan sits on Theresa Oswald's lap as she tries to play the piano along with Ibrahim Ahmed just prior to Oswald's news conference Friday at the Philippine Canadian Centre. JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS With his daughter, Churchill MP Niki Ashton, at his side, Steve Ashton talks to a group of women gathered at a Wolseley home. A_ 15_ Jan- 31- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A15 1/ 30/ 15 6: 47: 41 PM ;