The Progressive Conservative Party:
Hugh McFadyen
CBC Online News | Updated April 3, 2007
 It has been a whirlwind last few months for Hugh McFadyen, who moved from
the political backroom to the Opposition's corner office in less than 18 months.
McFadyen, a champion curler and lawyer, was elected to the legislature in
December 2005, just two months before he threw his hat into the ring for the
Conservative party's Manitoba leadership.
He took the reins of the Opposition party from former leader Stuart Murray
in a decisive first-ballot victory at the Tories' leadership convention last
April. Murray stepped down after receiving only lukewarm support at the
party's annual general meeting.
Sharp, young and polished, the rookie MLA looked to some like just the man
to lead voters back to the party. But others worry about a repeat of the
party's years under Stuart Murray: both were lauded for their youthful appeal
and "coolness," and each had only just emerged from behind the political
curtain before taking the party's helm.
But the change appeared to appeal to Manitobans: a poll last summer put the
Tories ahead of the NDP for the first time since they lost power in 1999.
That momentum has continued, with the Tories ending up just ahead of the NDP
in nearly every poll since, until a March poll by Probe Research put the party
neck and neck with the NDP.
Even so, the new leader has a fine line to walk.
To get back in office, the Conservatives must convince voters in Winnipeg
to give the party back the seats it lost to the NDP in 1999. And while wooing
Winnipeggers, McFadyen must also take care not to alienate the party's traditional
rural base.
Fund may be a key issue
The party has seized on the failure of the Crocus Investment Fund as its hot-button
issue to criticize the NDP government.
However, a Probe Research poll of Manitobans in March found almost 80 per
cent of Manitobans were not paying close attention to the issue, despite the
oppositions' constant haranguing, and only nine per cent blamed the NDP government
for the fund's problems.
Worse, from the Tories' perspective, the people mostly likely to be angry
about the Crocus affair are those who lost money when the fund failed —
and those who would have invested in the labour-sponsored fund may, arguably,
tend to be left-leaning politically anyway, so the Crocus issue alone may not
be enough to turn them blue come election day.
Recent polls have suggested health care is the biggest issue on Manitobans'
minds as the election approached, but it's a tough row to hoe for the Tories. While
the party has tried to attack the NDP's approach to health care, the government
never misses the opportunity to remind voters that the Tories, when last in power,
were responsible for cuts to it.
Promises to cut 'red tape'
Law and order has also been a major focus area of Tory criticism. Certainly
it would seem that voters, especially urban voters dealing with auto theft and
near-daily headlines about violent crime, could be swayed by a call for more
anti-crime measures.
But, as political analyst Paul Thomas points out, NDP Attorney General Gord
Mackintosh already talks a hard line on crime, frequently calling on Ottawa to
increase penalties for criminals.
McFadyen has suggested his party will focus on ending government mismanagement
and keeping Manitoba youth in the province, mainly by bringing down taxes and
cutting the "red tape" that blocks the efforts of entrepreneurs.
"If you want productivity, if you want growth, you need to get out of
the way of people who are building our province, and once that happens we'll
see growth," he said shortly after taking the party's helm. "Tax
revenues will come up even though we bring our tax rates down."
Whether Manitobans find the message — and the man behind it — persuasive
enough to change their vote remains to be seen.
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