‘Thrilling and terrifying’ time for Kinew’s coming cabinet choices

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This article was published 11/10/2023 (746 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With NDP premier-designate Wab Kinew expected to announce his cabinet as early as next week, political experts, observers and a former minister of the Crown weighed in Wednesday on what to expect.

“It’s absolutely thrilling and terrifying at the same time,” said Nancy Allan, who from 2003-2013 served as minister of labour and immigration, as well as education, under the former NDP government.

“There’s no training manual for this.”

“Wab Kinew has been there for seven years and he knows incumbent MLAs inside out, backwards and forwards. He’s a very hands-on leader.”–Nancy Allan

Allan recalls working 60 to 80 hours a week to create and implement public policy with “fantastic bureaucrats” who helped make it happen.

“I absolutely loved it,” she said.

And while she wouldn’t speculate on the new cabinet’s makeup, she trusts the builder.

“Wab Kinew has been there for seven years and he knows incumbent MLAs inside out, backwards and forwards. He’s a very hands-on leader,” said Allan, who helped Logan Oxenham defeat PC incumbent Kevin Klein in Kirkfield Park. “He also knows the candidates who’ve run and won; he knows them all and there’s a wealth of talent there.”

Kinew has said he’d prefer a smaller cabinet than the 18 ministers the Progressive Conservatives had at dissolution.

“With 34 (NDP MLAs) to choose from, the majority of them are probably going to be disappointed,” said University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus Paul Thomas, who recalled the late premier Howard Pawley describing the cabinet selection process to him.

“You put some names down that you think are good choices for a particular portfolio, and then you look at the overall list and you say, ‘Well, we’re not good in terms of including the North, and rural Manitoba is not sufficiently represented, the balance between men and women, between experience and newcomers — all of those are considerations,” said Thomas.

Securing swing seats — such as St. Boniface, where Robert Loiselle defeated Dougald Lamont, the Liberal leader, and Brandon East, where Glen Simard unseated PC incumbent Len Isleifson — may also factor into the making of a cabinet. Those MLAs may be elevated, said Thomas.

“You go through the cabinet list a number of times. The pressures for full representation of all potential backgrounds means that when you promise a small cabinet, it often grows over time,” Thomas said, noting that former PC premier Brian Pallister’s first cabinet had only 12 ministers.

In choosing his first cabinet, Kinew may appoint more-seasoned members of his caucus and avoid the inevitable risk of a novice politician making a mistake, said Deveryn Ross, a political commentator who served as Pallister’s deputy chief of staff.

“I think we should assume that he wants to run a mistake-free government, at least for starters,” said Ross. “He wants to hit the ground running and avoid the growing pains that often come in new governments.”

Some “automatic” candidates for cabinet include Ron Kostyshyn, the newly elected MLA for Dauphin who served in the previous NDP government as agriculture minister, Ross said. Kostyshyn is the only member of the NDP caucus with cabinet experience.

Adrien Sala, who’s served as finance and hydro critic and Uzoma Asagwara, who has been front and centre on health since before the pandemic, know their files and are experienced communicators.

Ross said Flin Flon MLA Tom Lindsay has been an effective MLA for the North and some other high-profile and outspoken members, such as Matt Wiebe (Concordia, who was critic for justice and MPI), Mark Wasyliw (Fort Garry, critic for economic development, investment and trade, as well as environment and climate change), Bernadette Smith (Point Douglas, who served as mental health and community wellness critic), education critic Nello Altomare (Transcona) and Nahanni Fontaine (St. Johns, who served as Opposition house leader) may also make the cut.

“(Fontaine is) a strong voice in that caucus and I don’t see any way that you couldn’t put her in cabinet,” said Ross, who isn’t sure what portfolio she may serve.

“You go through the cabinet list a number of times. The pressures for full representation of all potential backgrounds means that when you promise a small cabinet, it often grows over time.”–Paul Thomas

“When you’re selecting a cabinet, one of the messages that any premier would want to send to his caucus is that hard work and merit means everything. And in this case, you pay your dues, you put in the work and, eventually, you’re rewarded for that.

“Every person I’ve listed so far has put in their time. They’ve shown up in (budget) estimates, they’ve been effective critics and they would enter cabinet with a basic knowledge that inexperienced members would not yet have.”

Kinew’s front bench is what matters most right now, figures Thomas.

“There are maybe five or six positions in finance, health, education, justice and family services that will create the image of the government,” he said.

“These are the ones that have high policy content, high profile and are politically sensitive. Those choices are the most important. Who is sports minister doesn’t matter, provided they are something of an athlete — they are a junior minister.”

There are many opportunities and roles for governing MLAs to serve, such as house leader, speaker, legislative assistants and committee members, both Thomas and Ross said.

“Even if you’re not in cabinet, there’s lots of work to be done and it’s not the be-all and end-all,” Allan said. “It’s really time for us to bring people together. It’s been a rough few years here.”

A cabinet post and the speaker’s chair come with a significant pay boost: $56,390 on top of the base MLA salary of $102,998. The government house leader gets a $11,636 pay bump and legislative assistants receive an added $4,989.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca