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This article was published 26/8/2017 (1123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

There’s an old saying that suggests "Old age and treachery will triumph over youth and skill."

It isn’t clear whether indefatigable NDP leadership hopeful Steve Ashton has adopted this as his campaign slogan, but based on his antics of the past week, he certainly seems to have embraced its sentiment.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESs fileS NDP leadership candidate Steve Ashton

Mr. Ashton, currently trailing leadership-race rival Wab Kinew in preliminary delegate and youth votes, this week engaged in tactics described by local political scientists as "desperation," "last-ditch," "shabby," "dangerous" and "burnt earth." These negative assessments came after Mr. Ashton called on his competitor to own up to newly uncovered domestic assault allegations from 2003, citing the trauma of the victim of a completely unrelated assault as a reason for dredging up Mr. Kinew’s past charges — which were ultimately stayed.

Mr. Ashton’s demand came after anonymous emails were sent to local media, describing numerous brushes with the law that Mr. Kinew had not previously disclosed. Mr. Ashton denied any involvement in the distribution of the emails, but one media outlet confirmed that independent (and former NDP) MLA Mohinder Saran — an Ashton supporter — recently asked court clerks for copies of Mr. Kinew’s complete records.

One day after the anonymous email distribution, Mr. Ashton released a statement that he has never been arrested, charged or convicted of an offence and called on Mr. Kinew to do the same.

Mr. Kinew, of course, could do no such thing. He has spoken and written at length about many of his past indiscretions and maintains that he has learned from his mistakes, worked hard to make amends and is a much better person than he was during his troubled youth.

The lack of transparency with regard to these newly revealed incidents does not look good on Mr. Kinew, regardless of the fact none ended in conviction. But Mr. Ashton’s exploitation of them, and more particularly the way he suggested the alleged victim should be pressured to speak publicly about the altercations that led to the eventually stayed charges, looks even worse.

As unfavourably as it casts the candidates, the real casualty in this controversy is the rudderless New Democratic Party, which has been starved for positive storylines and without a hint of effective leadership since the great cabinet revolt of 2014. The next provincial election isn’t until 2020, but the NDP has much work to do before it can hope to regain the trust of Manitobans.

Ruthlessness of the sort displayed by Mr. Ashton — which, his critics would argue, has been a hallmark of his 40-year political career — does not help in the party’s image-reclamation effort. In previous runs at the NDP leadership, he was seen by many insiders as a dark force who had to be stopped from realizing his long-held ambition.

Two things seem clear after last week’s campaign kerfuffle: first, that Mr. Ashton remains as intent as ever on winning the NDP leadership, and second, he’s willing to burn the party to the ground in his at-all-costs pursuit of that goal.

If there’s an upside to the NDP’s fractured process, it’s that Mr. Kinew’s history will be well and truly dealt with by the time the leadership race is over. Should he be the party’s leader in 2020, that vein of potential attack ads will have been mined out.

Still, somewhere out there, perhaps in the Costa Rican sunshine, Brian Pallister is surely (assuming his staff has been able to reach him with the news) taking this all in with an ever-more-confident smile.