Interesting Situation for New MB Liberal Leader

Brandon University Associate Professor of Political Science Kelly Saunders weighs in.

"I don't think many people outside the Liberal party would be familiar with him, which is kind of interesting," says Saunders. "He actually has been a long-time member and a sort of internal party organizer within the Liberals for many years. But he's never held an elected position before. So, he's not really known to many Manitobans."

Kelly SaundersShe says no one is sure of what he stands for and what direction he wants to take the party, with need of making his presence known to the PC Conservative government and the Opposition NDP. But, really on a larger scale, he's in need of making those connections with Manitoba voters and giving them a chance to get to know him. This would cause people to consider voting for him in the next election. She notes that's difficult to do when you're on the outside of the Legislature looking in. You just can't get the kind of media attention and attraction that you would if you had a seat in the Legislature.

Saunders considers the reasons the Liberals voted for him as perhaps having something to do with a vote against the status quo, which she calls curious. She says Lamont's not an outsider, since he's been involved in the Liberals for several years, and has run against Rana Bokhari in the last provincial leadership race. On the other hand, she adds he's somewhat of an outsider because he's not a member of the Manitoba Legislature. He's not an MLA with his own seat.

"So, it seems in turning against the other two leaderships, who are MLA's, the party perhaps can be interpreted as having made a stand against the elite, even though in a curious way he is a member of the elite," Saunders continues. "I'm not really sure where the party's going with all of this. It was a close and tight race. For me, it shows maybe the party is uncertain where it wants to go and differentiate itself. The party has not really done the deep-thinking and heavy lifting that comes after a failed election bid, which happened in the last election. They pretty well had a disastrous election campaign last time around. And it seems to me they haven't really figured things out. This very close election race is perhaps an indication of a bit of disarray within the party."

She notes she's been informed that Lamont lives in Fort Rouge which is where Rana Bokhari ran against Wab Kinew. Saunders says there's not many more spaces for the Liberals to run a successful campaign and win.

"Hopefully a by election might come up such as in St. Boniface, where Greg Sellinger lives who may vacate his seat before the next election," Saunders notes. "I'm not sure. On the face of it, there's not a lot of clear winners in terms of ridings where Dugald can run and be confident he can win that seat."

In terms of their credibility in the province after making such a move, Saunders explains, "The Liberals in the province seemed to have experienced yet another example of missed opportunities. They do have a great opportunity to make some inroads. There's an incumbent government that many Manitobans are unsure of, and are a bit of frustrated over. An NDP party is under a new leader facing many challenges regarding his criminal past, and the party is still divided internally. They're not sure where they're going. It would seem to be a perfect opportunity for the MB Liberals to pull support from the NDP and Conservatives, and come up the middle taking advantage of that. But they haven't seemed to have been thinking about where they can strategically move and differentiate themselves from their opposition, and how they can take advantage of some real volatility happening in the electoral system in the province. They haven't done that work, and this close leadership race seems to signify that."

She adds Sharon Carstairs is a great example of how the Liberals can come up the middle very successfully to take advantage of the frustration with the status quo here. Liberals can do that and feed off the Liberal brand, though they're not quite as popular now as they were a few years ago. Saunders says they're still quite popular across the country. She points out there are a number of MPs within the city of Winnipeg that provincial Liberals could also tap into in terms of volunteers and organizational experience, as well as fundraising. But she notes they haven't made those kinds of connections with their federal Liberal brethren. Just more missed opportunities.