In what sounded more like an election speech than a breakfast chat, Manitoba Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen slammed the NDP government Tuesday on everything from health care to highways in a breakfast speech to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

"The bottom line is that we're being dragged down after seven years of NDP drift," he told the assembled crowd.

McFadyen said that all Gary Doer's government had to show after seven years in power was a bloated bureaucracy that has failed on its promises, including a pledge to rid the health care system of "hallway medicine."

Instead, the Tory Leader said, the NDP was beholden to unions at the expense of taxpayers, in projects such as the Red River Floodway Expansion Authority and in policy changes in fields such as education.

"If you look at what's going on in education, for example, scrapping the reporting of test results on a school-by-school basis — that was done because the union told them to do it. Not for any other reasons," McFadyen told reporters.

He was referring to a CBC News exclusive story Sept. 5 that found Manitoba is the only province that does not make provincewide test scores public.

"It's terrible for parents, it's terrible for the system, and parents have a right to know what's going on in the schools. But they're taking their direction from people other than parents," he charged.

NDP undid Tory accomplishments: McFadyen

McFadyen paid tribute to the former Tory governments of Duff Roblin and Gary Filmon during Tuesday's speech, but accused the NDP governments of Doer and Howard Pawley of undoing their predecessors' accomplishments in health, education and highways.

"Manitoba was taken over and ruled by an ideologically driven NDP government that found its inspiration in socialist and Communist ideas that were then in vogue in Eastern Europe," McFadyen said of Pawley's government, which ran from 1981 to 1988.

McFadyen said that Doer's government has made Manitoba worse off than other provinces.

"Our health care system was rated by the Conference Board of Canada as being [the] worst in Canada, even though we spend the fourth most," he said.

"Our highways are the worst in the West. Our students are falling behind in educational performance, and the government's approach is to hide the results rather than tackling the problem. Our crime rate continues to be among the highest in Canada, and our personal taxes are the highest west of Quebec."

But McFadyen added there is hope Manitoba can improve under a Conservative government, which he said will come up with long-term plans to protect water resources, address doctor shortages and reinvest in highways.

McFadyen said he would provide more specific details as the provincial election approaches. Doer is not expected to call an election until next spring at the earliest.