Like the rest of the country, citizens of Manitoba were deeply divided not only by their own beliefs, but by the draconian actions taken by their provincial government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, Wally Daudrich announced that if he becomes leader of the Progressive Conservatives, he’s going to reverse former Premier Brian Pallister’s onerous ticket-and-fine scheme and give back the monies collected and still owing. We broke the story in the Winnipeg Sun.
4.05 Part 2- He’s out fighting for votes every day as he tries to win the Tory leadership race, and Wally Daudrich hears it everywhere he goes: the party has to make amends after failing to respect the rights of people and businesses during the pandemic.
“We need to go back and do something about that. We should have done this when we were in government but we didn’t. I wanted to do that,” said Daudrich in an exclusive interview.
He called on Premier Wab Kinew to “make these changes so that we can actually bring back the fine money that people paid out to the Province and then forgive the fines of people that have been unable to pay to this point.”
If Daudrich becomes PC leader and wins the next election, “I will make sure that we are making the wrongs right again.”
Hear Marty Gold go over the numbers with Daudrich about his proposed Covid ticket amnesty, how many tickets would be refunded, how many forgiven, and Daudrich’s estimate of the cost to the provincial treasury.
He believes that churches and organizations that paid huge fine amounts for “illegal gatherings” and other violations would re-invest the refunds into charitable works in their communities.
Daudrich says he’s had his own run-ins with bureaucrats during the 30 years of operating Lazy Bear Lodge in Churchill and is sympathetic to those who suffered “during that dire time which unfortunately claimed a lot of small businesses and discouraged a lot of Manitobans. I want to give hope back to Manitoba.”
21.06 Part 3- Episode 8 wraps up with an analysis of the Daudrich gambit to bring disaffected conservatives back into the party fold, and a reminder of how listeners can support our work during Season 6.
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