Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have narrowly chosen Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan to function the social gathering’s new chief.
After a six-month management contest, Khan defeated Wally Daudrich, who owns a resort and ecotourism enterprise in Churchill, in a vote performed via mail-in ballots. Khan gained 2,198 factors within the weighted poll to Daudrich’s 2,163, the Official Opposition social gathering introduced Saturday on the Radisson Lodge in downtown Winnipeg.
Khan’s victory gave him 50.4 per cent of the obtainable factors.
The management contest was sparked when former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson stepped down as social gathering chief in early 2024, months after her PCs misplaced the autumn 2023 provincial election to Wab Kinew’s NDP.
Following her departure, the social gathering appointed Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko as interim chief and selected a prolonged contest to pick a brand new everlasting one.
The social gathering gave potential contestants six months to enroll in the race and one other six months to marketing campaign, partly to keep away from a repeat of the social gathering’s disputed 2021 management race between Stefanson and former Conservative MP Shelly Glover.
Khan, who was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in a 2022 byelection, was endorsed by 10 out of 20 members of the PC caucus forward of Saturday’s vote.
In the course of the prolonged management race, he positioned himself as higher in a position to lead the opposition social gathering out of the political wilderness on the premise he already has a seat within the legislature.
Khan made few coverage bulletins throughout the marketing campaign. He promised to pursue extra public-private partnerships inside the health-care system and supply municipalities with an undisclosed portion of provincial gross sales tax income.
Khan turns into the primary Muslim in addition to the primary Canadian from a South Asian ethnic background to steer the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives.
Daudrich, who plans to run within the forthcoming Manitoba byelection in Spruce Woods, didn’t obtain endorsements from any members of the PC caucus. Early within the marketing campaign, he described some PC MLAs as lazy and however declined to title the elected officers in query.
In the course of the marketing campaign, Daudrich positioned himself because the extra conservative of the 2 candidates and mused about eradicating the phrase “progressive” from the social gathering title.
Daudrich promised to fast-track the event of Manitoba mines and construct a second port on Hudson Bay, claiming European prospects would foot the invoice for the proposed megaproject.
The Progressive Conservatives presently maintain 20 seats within the 57-seat Manitoba Legislature, whereas the governing NDP holds 34.
A complete of 10,999 PC members have been eligible to vote within the 2025 management race. Brad Zander, chair of the social gathering’s management choice committee, stated 7,108 members accomplished ballots and 6,750 of these have been verified by social gathering officers.
That translated into 4,362 votes below a weighted system that prevented candidates from stacking votes inside a single Manitoba constituency affiliation.
The 6,750 ballots forged within the 2025 PC management race falls in need of the 16,807 ballots submitted within the 2021 PC management race, which noticed Stefanson defeat Glover by 363 votes.
