Former Manitoba PC leadership candidate Shelly Glover working to form new right-of-centre party
Glover says Progressive Conservatives can't get past refusing to search landfill, 'stand firm' campaign ads
Former Conservative MP Shelly Glover, who came within 373 votes of becoming Manitoba's Progressive Conservative Party leader and premier in 2021, says she's trying to form a new right-of-centre alternative to the Manitoba Tories.
Glover said she's working with several people to form a new conservative party because the PCs can't shed the political baggage incurred by the former PC government when it refused to search the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of two murdered First Nations women — and then campaigned for re-election on a promise to double down on that refusal.
"There are many of us looking at forming a new party," Glover said Tuesday in an interview from Brownsville, Texas.
"I do not believe that this party can recover. It certainly doesn't represent the conservative principles, values and ethics that I hold dear, and I strongly believe that we should be moving forward under a different party name and a different leadership."
The retired Winnipeg police officer, who served two terms as the Conservative member of Parliament for the Winnipeg riding of Saint Boniface, ran for leadership of the Manitoba PCs in 2021, following the resignation of then-premier Brian Pallister.
Glover contested her narrow loss in that race to Heather Stefanson and launched a court fight to have the results thrown out on the basis of irregularities in the contest.
Justice James Edmond declined to overturn the election because he said Glover could not demonstrate the irregularities were substantial enough to affect the outcome.
Glover nonetheless remained a PC member until the 2023 provincial election, during which Stefanson's PCs ran ads promising to "stand firm" against any pressure to search a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of murder victims Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.
"I firmly quit and cancelled my membership with the PC Party of Manitoba when I first saw the ads," said Glover, adding she also applied to volunteer her services to search for the remains of Harris and Myran.
Glover said she was relieved when Stefanson's successor, interim PC Leader Wayne Ewasko, made an unconditional apology in the legislature last week for his government's refusal to search the landfill.
"Our government erred. It's as simple as that," Ewasko said during question period on March 5.
Ewasko made the apology one week after the announcement that the search of the Prairie Green landfill, initiated by Premier Wab Kinew's NDP government, had found human remains. On Friday night, the province said two sets of remains had been found, one of which was identified as belonging to Harris. The other has yet to be identified.
Glover said she was waiting for that apology and was proud of Ewasko for issuing it, but found it "repugnant" that PC leadership candidate Obby Khan — one of two people running to replace Stefanson — declined to support Ewasko's declaration the former government erred by refusing to search the landfill.
"I think the decision that was made at the time was based on the information that was presented at that time," Khan said in an interview last Friday, hours before Manitoba RCMP confirmed one set of remains belonged to Harris.
Khan also said the party's messaging and communication around its landfill decision lacked empathy and compassion.
No plans to seek office: Glover
In a Facebook post on Monday, Glover accused Khan of pouring salt in the wounds of the murder victims' families and said conservatives should "distance themselves far far away from anything connected" to the Manitoba PCs.
"It just puts another black mark on this PC party of Manitoba," Glover said in an interview.
Kinew, meanwhile, said during question period on Tuesday that he believes Khan's political career should be over.
Glover said she is not supporting any candidate in the PC leadership race. She said she also is not impressed by the contention of Khan's rival, Wally Daudrich, that he would have supported a landfill search but would have sought corporate support to pay for it.
"To say it's too costly to seize evidence in a horrific murder, to me that is not something that I agree with," Glover said. "The moment we start to say it's too costly to look for evidence and seize evidence, then we let the bad guys win."
Glover said she will not reveal who else is involved in her efforts to form a new right-of-centre political party in Manitoba until the PC leadership race concludes. She suggested in her Facebook post it may be called the Manitoba Conservative Party.
Glover also said she will not be the face of the new party or seek elected office again.
"Those days are done for me," she said.
There already was another right-of-centre political party in Manitoba active in the most recent provincial election. The Keystone Party fielded candidates in five constituencies in the 2023 election and finished third in each of those races.
Keystone Leader Kevin Friesen said Tuesday he is aware of Glover's efforts to form a new party but is not directly involved in those discussions.
The president of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, meanwhile, said he does not support the creation of yet another new conservative party.
A schism on the right of the political spectrum would only benefit the New Democratic Party, Brent Pooles said.
"So they're going to take their marbles and go home. They're just going to split the vote, if they get any traction at all," Pooles said Tuesday in an interview from Scottsdale, Ariz.
Pooles also said he was pleased to see Ewasko apologize last week and repeated his contention the 2023 PC election ads were "disgusting."
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