Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 13/5/2017 (1223 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

This has not been a banner week in the Manitoba legislature.

NDP MLA Rob Altemeyer was forced to admit he’d racked up a $5,000 bill on his government cellphone while on vacation in Mexico. Altemeyer, now officially one of the last people on the face of the Earth to hear about a little something called "roaming fees," said he intended to pay the money back. It’s just that he hasn’t done it yet. But he will. Promise.

Photos by WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS New Democrat Rob Altemeyer (left) and Premier Brian Pallister during question period in the Manitoba legislature.

Meanwhile, on the government side of the legislature, Premier Brian Pallister was functioning once again at his petulant best.

It was revealed that Pallister had registered a new company in Costa Rica, where he owns a vacation home. However, when asked what this company did, the premier refused to say. He was just as prickly when he was asked to explain how it is he keeps in touch with his office when he’s basking in the Central American sun, refusing to provide even the simplest details.

When he was accused of neglecting his duties when on vacation, Pallister claimed he works "harder than any premier that’s been around here for a long, long time." (Note to premier: that’s a preposterous, immature thing for any premier to say about any of his predecessors. All first ministers work hard.)

But it got worse when Pallister followed up with the claim that "I don’t have to defend my work ethic." (Further note to premier: when you become a public servant, you do have to defend your work ethic.)

And then, when we all thought it couldn’t get worse, it got even worse: "I take less vacation time than the previous premier and the one before that." (Last note to premier: not sure where you got your information on former premiers Gary Doer and Greg Selinger, but after admitting you spend up to eight weeks a year in Costa Rica, it’s a little unlikely the other premiers took more time off.)

Sigh. Two things become patently clear when you review the silliness that unfolded this week on Broadway.

First, the Manitoba legislature seems to have adopted the maturity and decorum of the average daycare centre. And the problems didn’t start this past week; politics in this province has been devoid of maturity for most of the past year. Remember the unfounded "take your pants off" allegation levelled by Tory minister Rochelle Squires at opposition MLAs? Or the incredibly long and painful process the NDP went through to decide that Mohinder Saran, twice accused of sexual harassment, should no longer sit in caucus?

The list of abject stupidity and incompetence goes on and on and on.

Which brings us to our second point: Manitoba desperately needs a third viable political party to shake up the electorate and force the NDP and the Tories to be, well, better.

This province is starved for an alternative to the NDP, currently still on a downward trajectory and reaching for the bottom of provincial politics, and the Progressive Conservatives, riding high with a majority mandate but seemingly unable to escape a litany of self-inflicted wounds that will make the next election much more competitive than it probably needs to be.

Alternatives? The Manitoba Liberal Party has, at times, threatened to become a legitimate alternative. In the 2016 election, for example, the Grits looked ready to make a breakthrough. Lamentably, rookie leader Rana Bokhari dragged the party’s fortunes down with her own inability to perform even the simplest of campaign duties. Yes, the Liberals won three seats, but the party did not play a major role in determining the outcome of the election.

Premier Brian Pallister during question period in the Manitoba Legislature.

What of the Manitoba Green Party? The Greens nearly knocked off Altemeyer in the Wolseley riding but have never really materialized into a legitimate player. Even after their best electoral showing, the Greens seem to have vanished from the political landscape.

The simple, awful fact of the matter is that Manitoba provincial politics is stuck in a dysfunctional rut in which the NDP and Progressive Conservatives take turns at governing and then running their parties into the ground — all with the confidence that no other party will step into the equation and disrupt the vicious cycle.

What would it be like to live in a province where a legitimate third-party alternative existed to keep the others on their toes? One need only look as far as the election this past week in British Columbia.

After voting was completed, the Liberals, under leader Christy Clark, were reduced to a minority mandate with 43 of 87 seats. The NDP, widely expected to win the election, got 41 seats. And then there was the Green party, which captured nearly 17 per cent of the vote — or more than 300,000 votes — and won three seats. That heroic performance means the Greens will likely hold the balance of power for whichever party ultimately forms government.

Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason, among the most elegant analysts of the wacky B.C. political scene, suggests the three Green MLAs could serve as the antidote to the rampant cronyism and arrogance that have characterized the Clark-led Liberal government.

"If the final outcome of the 2017 election in B.C. is a minority government, the three-MLA Green party could have a capacious impact on the Clark government," Mason wrote the morning after the election.

It is hard to look at what is happening in B.C. without wondering how much better things would be in Manitoba if a third party held the balance of power and was able to curb the insipidness of the NDP and the unbridled but unearned arrogance of Progressive Conservatives. What if Pallister had to pay homage to a third-party caucus to keep his government afloat? Would he turn his back on Costa Rica and actually become the diligent, hard-working premier he claims to be?

And what of the NDP? Would the NDP have allowed itself to fight the last election with a leader such as Selinger, a man whose personal brand was so badly damaged the party had nowhere to go but down?

The presence of a viable third party for voters here remains, for the time being, an impossible dream. One can only hope that the dysfunction unfolding in the Manitoba legislature inspires the creation of that third option.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca