Intentionally or not, 'coulda, woulda, shoulda' is now a PC pandemic slogan
The premier says it's not a talking point; the opposition may have other designs for the phrase in 2023
Three times over the past 10 months, high-profile Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have used some variation of "coulda, shoulda, woulda" in response to questions about the way the government handled the pandemic.
Premier Heather Stefanson says this is not a formal party talking point. The provincial opposition may have other designs on it.
"Coulda, shoulda, woulda" has tremendous potential for use in attack ads when the next general election nears in 2023.
Former premier Brian Pallister was the first PC leader to employ this rhetoric. When the third wave of the pandemic was spiralling out of control, Pallister used the line to push back against suggestions Manitoba dawdled before enacting new restrictions.
"Nobody has been able in this country and most places in the world to keep the third wave out," Pallister told reporters during a telephone news briefing on May 7, 2021.
"So I say to the Monday-morning quarterback people, sure, we should have, could have, might have. That's fine. Nobody else did that. Nobody else has been able to do it."
Manitoba, however, fared so poorly during the third wave, the sheer volume of severe COVID-19 cases overwhelmed intensive care wards in this province. In May and June, a total of 57 patients were transferred to intensive care wards in other provinces.
Stefanson was the health minister at the time. Late in the summer, when she ran for leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, she too was asked why she didn't push for tougher restrictions in April, before COVID transmission spiralled out of control.
"Coulda, shoulda, woulda," Stefanson said in an interview on Sept. 1, 2021. "These are what we can think of after the fact, but when you're thrown in the middle of this, there is no playbook for this."
Last week, the PC candidate for the byelection in Fort Whyte — the provincial constituency vacated by Pallister when he resigned — employed a very similar line.
"Should have, could have, would have," Obby Khan said in an interview on March 8. "The government did the best it can. There is no playbook written on this."
On Monday, Stefanson was asked whether "shoulda, coulda, woulda" is an official party slogan.
"No," she said at Richardson International Airport, expressing amusement at the premise of the question.
This may not be something the premier wishes to laugh off.
By dismissing decisions that may have contributed to the illness, hospitalization and deaths of Manitobans, the premier runs the risk of appearing insensitive to the thousands of Manitobans who have been impacted by COVID-19.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew called the "coulda, woulda, shoulda" rhetoric flippant.
"Whether it's the premier saying that, whether it's Brian Pallister saying it or whether it's the PC candidate for Fort Whyte saying it, it's inappropriate," Kinew said Monday at the Manitoba Legislature.
University of Manitoba political studies professor Royce Koop called the line dismissive but described it as more offensive from the mouth of the premier than it is from a byelection candidate who happens to be a political novice.
"There's a difference between Obby Khan saying this and Heather Stefanson, who's been in politics a long time," Koop said. "I think we need to cut the first-time candidate some slack."
The rhetoric may prove to be unusually damaging because Manitobans already have a very dim view of the way Stefanson and Pallister have handled the pandemic.
According to an Angus Reid Forum of 2,550 Canadians, conducted in partnership with CBC from March 1-4, Manitobans have the least favourable view of the way their provincial leaders have managed COVID-19.
According to the survey, 78 per cent of Manitobans say Pallister and Stefanson have done a bad or very bad job handling the pandemic.
Only 20 per cent said Pallister and Stefanson did a good job. The poll has an overall margin of error of two per cent and is considered 95 per cent accurate. There is a larger error margin for the Manitoba subsample of 162 respondents.
This result may not be surprising. But it should be sobering for the PCs, who may face an uphill re-election battle in 2023 regardless of how well the province navigates the next 18 months.
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