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This article was published 28/10/2014 (2154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Greg Selinger vowed on Tuesday to fight on in office, despite intense pressure from cabinet colleagues to step down.

Selinger said he would continue to work to make Manitobans prosper.

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Andrew Swan speaks to media about whether Premier Greg Selinger should resign.

The premier, held responsible by many senior NDP officials for the party's low standings in the polls, said he saw no reason to leave office at this time.

The government issued a one-line statement that Selinger would hold a press conference at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, fuelling speculation he would resign. The premier had disappeared from view in the last few days, failing to attend a Jewish community event Monday night and a cabinet meeting this morning.

Many party officials say it was Seilinger's failure to justify last year's increase in provincial sales tax that has put the NDP well behind the Progressive Conservatives in polls and led to last week's drubbing in the Winnipeg mayoral election of longtime party standardbearer Judy Wasylicia-Leis.

A provincial election is likely in the spring of 2016.

Attorney General Andrew Swan was the latest NDP cabinet minister to come out publicly in support of Selinger’s resignation. Finance Minister Jennifer Howard and Municipal Government Minister Stan Struthers spoke to the media Monday. Health Minister Erin Selby has also spoken in favour of the premier stepping down in a media report also this morning.

Swan said if Selinger stays in office the ruling NDP risk seeing the next election turn into a referendum on Selinger’s leadership; not which party has the best vision for the province.

"It’s pretty clear, on all the evidence, that there are a lot of Manitobans who are very angry at the premier and it’s pretty clear that that anger is getting in the way of us being able to talk about all the good things that we’ve, and frankly, that the premier has done," Swan said this morning.

"It’s become clear that there is a lot of reason to be worried that the next election is actually drifting towards being a referendum about Greg Selinger personally. That’s going to overshadow the things we’ve accomplished."

Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross and Education Minister James Allum have come out in support of Selinger.

Swan said he could not give a deadline for Selinger to resign.

But he said if Selinger stays, it puts at risk the ability of the NDP to show Manitobans that it is willing to change, something it has done since it came to power in 1999.

"Change as you try to win a fifth term, change is a concern, and I’m very worried that the anger that people have is going to cause them to overlook the risks of a change to a Brian Pallister government," he said.

Swan also he counts himself as only one of several senior people in government who believe that the premier needs to do some deep soul searching in his future as premier.

"This is not an easy thing for us to do," Swan said about going public.

He added he does not consider himself a potential contender for leadership. Swan ran for leadership after former Premier Gary Doer resigned in 2009 to become Canada’s ambassador to the United States. He bowed out early in the race leaving Selinger and Steve Ashton to fight it out.

Jobs and Economy Minister Theresa Oswald also spoke today about Selinger’s future, but was guarded in her comments saying her discussions with the premier were private.

She added her conversations with Selinger concerned polling results.

"I think one thing that maybe a few people are forgetting in all of this is that the premier is also a human being and I imagine that this has been a very difficult few days for him, and quite honestly I can’t stop thinking about all of that," she said.

"We can look at the evidence Premier Selinger has been coming to work with best interests of Manitoba at heart," she said. "I believe he’ll remain having Manitobans best interests at heart in terms of whatever decisions he makes in the days ahead. I will respect those decisions."

However, she said internal conversations are taking place about Selinger stepping down sooner rather than later.

"If anybody is trying to act like those conversations are not taking place they would be foolish in the extreme," she said. "I believe that he’ll make a decision. It’s his decision to make in the best interests of Manitobans. I would expect no less of him."

Oswald also said she had no designs in vying for the leadership of the NDP.