After 1 year as Manitoba premier, Wab Kinew remains popular despite limited progress on biggest issues

One year after takingoffice, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinewis intent on telling voters his NDP government's issues are the fault of the PC administration his partyousted, while maintaining he'll make inroads on monumental challenges facing the province, such as fixing the health-care system, addressing homelessness and balancing the budget.

In a sit-down interview Wednesday to mark a year in power,Kinewrelied on his usualtalking points, as he said fixingthe damage the former Progressive Conservative government brought to health care, such as the decision to convertthree Winnipegemergency departments into urgent-care centres, would take years.

"The scale of the health-care challenge is so large" that even though the government is on track to deliver its promise ofhiring 1,000 net new front-line workersthis year, "we now gotta repeat that again next year and then the year after," the premier said

Kinewalso blamed the Tories for complicating the government's efforts to balance the budget by contributing to adeficitapproaching$2 billionin the last fiscal year.

"It's a much narrower path to balance, but I think the waythat we get there is the same way that the average family figures out how do you balance your family budget," hesaid.

"What's important to us and how can we do some belt-tightening that preserves those priorities?"

ER wait times worse, tax cuts deeper

But after one year, his government's progresson some of Manitoba'sbiggest challenges is limited.

Emergency room wait times in Winnipegare worse year-over-year than under the PCs and, despite lamenting the province's fiscal situation, hehas willingly surrendered hundreds of millions in tax revenueby eliminatingthe gas tax for 2024.

Despite thesecontradictions, a Manitoba political expert said Kinewis enjoying "rather spectacular popularity" that, according to one recent poll from Probe Research, is growingacross the province.

"All parties are entitled to a certain duration of a honeymoon, but this seems to be beyond what most parties would get, even during 12 months," said Paul Thomas,a professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

"I think a lot of that, probably most of it, is based on the performance of the premier, who is not only the greatest strength of the government he's also the face of the government in every event, opportunity that comes along."

WATCH | Kinew proud of Manitobans for uniting after bitter election campaign:

Manitoba premier takes pride in people's positivity, 1 year after divisive campaign

8 days ago

Duration 0:50

One year into his mandate, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says one of the things he's most proud of is how many people seem to have rallied around his NDP government, putting the divisive rhetoric of last year's campaign behind them.

A former broadcaster and public speaker, Kinewis a superb communicator who seems to thrivespeaking at any event, Thomas said.

"His capacity to find just the right phrase for a particular occasion is something instinctive."

He said the premier's fortunes have beenemboldened by people'swillingness to grant the new governmentsome slack, despite significant challenges in health care, crime and reconciliation, among others,that cannot besolved overnight

"There seems to be some grace period being granted by Manitobans that the government's entitled to more time to demonstrate results."

Premier warned it would take time

Thomas also points out Kinewhas long warned that fixing the major issues would take years, if not longer.

"But I'm not sure that people heard that caveat," he said.

"What they heard was that there would be shorter wait times for various medical procedures. They heard that we would have fewer encampments and fewer people beset by drugs, fentanyl,and committing crimes to deal with their drug habit."

Kinew made history on Oct. 3, 2023, whenthe son of an Anishinaabe chiefbecame the first First Nations premier of any Canadian province.

His New Democrats won 34 of the legislature's 57 seats, dethroning the Progressive Conservative Party that was in power for seven years. The NDPhas added a 35th MLA after winning a byelection in the Tuxedo constituency in June.

Throughout the election campaign, the NDPstrived to make health care the top issue for voters.

A year later, staffare still overworked and people are still waiting years for surgeries and hours in waiting rooms.

On Wednesday, Kinewcontinued to point the blame entirely at hispredecessors.

"It will take us years to fix the damage that Heather Stefansonand Brian Pallister caused in health care," he said, referring to the two previous PC premiers.

The premier said the hiring of 873 net new health-care workers shows the government is making progress, butstill, some unions say front-line workers haven't noticed any change.

In order to balance the budget,Thomas said the government muststart curtailing spending and saying no to groups asking formoney.

"When you raise concerns or express needs or make demands on this government, it seems very, very willing and inclined to please," he said.

NDP plans to curtail spending

The NDP's plan to balance the budget by 2027 forecasts annual spending growth in future years will be less than 2.5 per cent well belowthesix per cent spending increase in this year's budget.

Achieving that goal will be"very challenging," Thomas said.

"It will require some good luck in terms of economic growth and prosperity and revenues and sustained federal transfer payments, in particular."

WATCH | Gas tax holiday 'temporary,' but premier won't say when levy returns:

Kinew says he's 'keeping a finger on the pulse' when deciding future of gas-tax holiday

8 days ago

Duration 1:32

Premier Wab Kinew says giving Manitobans a break from the provincial gas tax was his NDP government's 'big, marquee' commitment over his first year in office. But with a ballooning deficit, he stresses it's only a temporary measure that may or may not continue in January.

Kinewhas recently warnedthat fiscal restraint is coming.

"One of the problems may be that they're leaving these hard choices deeper into their four-year term in office," he said.

"That'sthe last point at which you want to be telling people the unfortunate news that we're going to have to raise taxes because we didn't control our spending in the prior years."

Progressive Conservative interim leader Wayne Ewaskoexpects the premier's popularity to slumpas more Manitobans recognizetheir province is struggling under Kinew's leadership.

"People are starting to realize, hey, theirwait times have not gotten any betterin health care, their schools aren't getting built," he said, citingthe NDP pausingthe planned construction of nine schools.

"When we talk about Hydro, when we talk about finances, there doesn't seem to be any plans. It's all about short-term gains andvery small gains at that."

Wab Kinew touts his government's progress 1 year after Manitoba election

8 days ago

Duration 3:10

While Wab Kinew made headway on some of his government's election promises, there has been limited progress on some of Manitoba's biggest challenges one year after the NDP's election.