Costa Rica

Brian Pallister has been Premier of Manitoba for almost a year.

I wanted to find out more objective information about the job that he has been doing, so I went directly to his own web site to find out about his accomplishments.  I really couldn't find anything and had to do a lot of research.

Finally, I was able to find some accomplishments:

First of all, Premier Pallister took credit for staffing his office appropriately.  He noted that a number of positions in government became vacant once he assumed office and that he had to add a number of positions in order to  run the province appropriately.   This is easy code to decipher as it is from the Conservative old school playbook.  Fire anyone against you and create a job for anyone who supported you.  Surround yourself with like minded staff members who will never provide an alternate point of view.

He also takes a lot of pride in that he hasn't laid off any government workers in his first 100 days of office.  That came later.  The first layoffs were in November and 112 government positions were cut. He has not laid off any positions for the Crown Corporations.  What he did do is make them do it for themselves.  He set severe budget constrictions on their payrolls forcing them to do their own dirty work.

The NDP claims that 14,000 full-time jobs have been lost in Manitoba since Pallister became Premier.  This appears to be grossly inflated.   Statistics Canada reports that only 13,700 jobs have been lost.   This is roughly equal to the amount of people employed in the Parkland Region of Manitoba.

There is apparently more to come and the list of government projects cancelled is too great to list.  These projects would have created employment and would have insured that Manitobans would still have access to services that they need.

And he is only just beginning.  He is already told public sector workers to get ready for concession bargaining.

This morning I got a postcard from the Opposition noting that the Manitoba Premier plans to spend 6-8 weeks in Costa Rica per year at his vacation home.  The Opposition is thinking that this is excessive and wants to know how we feel about it.   I have no problem at all with him spending 8 weeks in Costa Rica.  Infact, I would be happy if he spent the whole year there.