In Episode 10 we pivot to the Legislature to take a look at the first hundred days of Premier Wab Kinew. What has he done so far as leader of Manitoba? It appears the honeymoon is waning and coming to an end.
2,18 – Marty Gold walks through the first actions of the Wab Kinew regime, which was heavy on the virtue signaling and light of genuine deliverables.
As reliant as any NDP government on sin taxes, making gambling and booze more accessible can lead to the collateral damage to families and the community. It’s not clear if Kinew has calculated that. The promise of a downtown “safe consumption” site still has no details, but Marty has an idea for a location.
So far we’ve seen schools, day cares, personal care homes, all canceled. The sell-off of derelict Manitoba Housing is also on hold. Some were designated to be sold to low-income families. Ideology over common sense?
11.58- By canceling the out-of-province surgery program with no idea how to get patients slated, Kinew has sentenced the sick to suffer in pain. Yet the whole election campaign pivoted on improving health care.
Defunding the overseas recruitment of nurses goes under the microscope. You’ll hear how successful the PC plan was, and we use our Faye Hochman high school math to add up how many nurses are already booked.
But the NDP didn’t want that? It’s part of a pattern where promises were made with no path to fulfill them, because the objective was to get elected and blame the PCs for forcing Kinew to break his promises.
15.43 – The Free Press cited the nursing crisis as a line in the sand. An editorial stated “It’s true that Wab Kinew’s NDP government has inherited a terrific mess in the form of our current health-care system. But it can, and should, be held accountable for failures to act quickly on the file… and if Manitobans can’t get into an ER (or even get a health card) for love or money, it won’t be acceptable to look backwards for an excuse.”
16.48– We have a snapshot of the results after the first 4400 responses to the NDP’s budget priority survey. Wait till you hear which NDP favorites languished in the basement.
The most noticeable (to the public) decision Kinew made was to suspend the gas tax. He had a couple of other ideas that were sensible like having workers downtown go back to the office… except for the intersecting issues of crime and public safety.
Kinew also failed to meet his promise on bail reform. Too shy to ask his buddy Justin Trudeau to keep criminals in jail?
The most remarkable thing he’s done since being elected, as Marty explains, is that Kinew has largely kept a tight rein on the far-left radicals in his cabinet and caucus.
But ultra-feminist heroine Nahanni Fontaine has gotten Kinew’s government into trouble after the Families Minister kept parroting pro-Hamas propaganda- and never once denounced the sexual violence committed on October 7. Voters who don’t support terrorists have noticed.
Considering how he’s scrubbed working for Al Jazeera from his resume, Wab may want to talk with her about it.
25:36 Part 3- A fast wrap up with a look towards upcoming podcasts.
On deck we have a request to interview Councilor Sherri Rollins regarding her security concerns about City Hall; following up on the murder of Kyriakos Vogiatzakis and the failure of the ambulance service, and an upcoming analysis piece about education, Math is Hard- for Lefties.
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