Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew emphasizes positivity, ‘message of unity’ in CityNews year-end interview
Posted December 31, 2024 8:30 am.
Last Updated December 30, 2024 10:07 pm.
This was a big year for Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew — his first full 12 months in charge.
Now, as the busy year comes to an end, the premier spoke with CityNews’ Kurt Black to reflect on the year gone by, and also to talk about his plans for Manitoba’s future in 2025.
Kurt Black (KB): I’ve always been fascinated with politics and this has been a big curiosity for me, and I think you’re at the point where you can answer it really well. A year-and-a-half in, has anything really shocked you?
Premier Wab Kinew (WK): On the day to day, you learn so much on the job, there are always these little surprises along the way. But for me, the big one has been the really positive, open-minded response from Manitobans. We’ve been in government for a year and change now and people are still stepping up to work with us. They’re still encouraging us. It’s very positive. And it’s a surprise on a personal level, because I was never the popular kid in school or my friend group, but the fact that people are willing to say: ‘Hey, your government is something I’m willing to engage with, or keep an open mind about’ — it’s awesome. I just feel that we’re at a really exciting time in Manitoba right now. People are feeling good about our province, so it’s just a huge honour to have that chance to work with people here right now.
KB: We’ve seen the approval rates and behind Santa Claus, you might be the most popular person in the province with 68 per cent. It’s been a hot start to the first year-and-a-half. From the progress made at the landfills, to Orange Shirt Day, to the progress within health care. A lot of things to look at, but for yourself personally, when you look at all of that, what are you most proud of?
WK: I’m most proud of Manitobans’ optimism right now. But on a personal level, one of the things that really stood out to me during the year was the provincial gas tax.
At the start of the year, I wasn’t sure how it wasn’t going to work, but when gas prices went down to $0.99 and then, over the course of the year, we had the lowest gas prices across Canada, for me, that was a big way to help the average person. Whether you’re going to work, or you’re doing stuff with the family, the fact you can buy the kids a McDonald’s lunch with the money you saved gassing up, that’s a real help for people.
Especially coming off the inflation and the high interest rates, so to me, that was a big moment. A lot of things we can say have been great in the province, but on a personal level, that’s one that I responded to.
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KB: I can attest to the gas tax because when I’m home in Ontario, there’s a very stark difference as to what you pay at the pump. On the turn side, of course, balancing the budget and you’ve been very forthcoming that you’re not going to correct health care in one day, it’s an impossible task. What are you hoping to even grow and improve into 2025?
WK: Health care is an area I hope people see that we’ve turned the corner.
After years of losing staff, cuts, and emergency rooms closing, we’ve now turned the corner where we’re adding staff. Net, new staff. So even if you account for people retiring and things like that, we got more than 870 additional nurses, doctors, health-care support workers, health-care professionals. We brought one of the emergency rooms back in rural Manitoba in Carberry, so we’ve turned the corner, but it’s not the goal level that people want to see yet.
READ: Minister Asagwara vows to improve Manitoba’s health care in CityNews year-end interview
So, 2025, we want those ER waits to come down. We want to add more staff beyond what we’ve already done. And I think it’s such a big part of life, but it’s also such a big system, it’s going to take a lot of that continued effort to show progress.
KB: Another big topic looking ahead to 2025 is the evolving political landscape, both here in our country and south of the border. A big emphasis from your government, both during the campaign and since, has been standing up against division. How integral, how crucial is that message, heading into 2025 with Trump 2.0, and Trudeau and Poilievre?
WK: It’s huge. There’s so much uncertainty right now. Politics often can seem really negative, especially as you head toward an election, it becomes like that even more and more. So we know that Trump won a free and fair election and now we have to get ready for Jan. 20, his first day on the job, although he’s already setting the global conversation. At the same time, there’s going to be a federal election in 2025, there has to be according to the law, so we’ll keep a close eye on that.
The big thing I’ve noticed, far and away, regardless of what your political stripe is — how you identify in terms of politics — I think people want positivity. They want a message of unity, especially after COVID, and how that ended. It was so divisive, people are sick of that. People want a message that’s going to bring people together. So for us, as a government at the provincial level, again, we can’t control everything — there’s these ways bigger forces out there, federal, American, things like that — but here in Manitoba we’re just trying to have that common-sense approach that will allow people to say: ’Yeah. Let’s focus on health care. Let’s focus on some affordability measures to bring down the cost of living’ and if we can do that and tell a good story, that Manitobans are feeling optimistic and positive, to me, that’s a really important part of the job.
KB: Any last message for the people of Manitoba heading into Christmas?
WK: It’s been an amazing 2024 here in Manitoba. There’s lots of reasons to be positive and optimistic, so let’s just keep that optimism going in 2025. I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Happy holidays to everybody. Be safe and let’s make sure that positivity continues.
