Steve Ashton: Manitoba’s longest-serving MLA since 1981 resigns from cabinet to seek premiership for a second time

Thompson NDP MLA Steve Ashton, minister of infrastructure and transportation and the marathon man of Manitoba politics, met with Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger this morning and submitted his resignation as minister to run for the leadership of the party and premier’s job. It is Ashton’s second bid to become premier. He lost to Selinger in October 2009. Ashton’s resignation from cabinet is effective at midnight tonight.

Ashton had served as minister of infrastructure and transportation since November 2009. In October 1999, Ashton was first appointed to that ministerial portfolio in what was then the job of minister of highways and government services (the department was renamed in January 2001 as transportation and government services) and he held the post until a September 2002 cabinet shuffle when he moved to to conservation – and so on around the cabinet table over the years –  until he returned to infrastructure and transportation more than five years ago.

Ashton recalled in a conversation with me a few years ago how much satisfaction he had as minister getting to re-jig the Official Highway Map of Manitoba to better reflect Manitoba “North of 53,” pointing perhaps to that interesting mix of policy wonk (he knows his facts and then some) and proud Northerner that he is.

He’s the second NDP MLA to toss his hat into the ring, along with former health minister Theresa Oswald. Both are running to replace Selinger, who is also expected to run for this own job. Last month, five Manitoba NDP provincial cabinet ministers, the so-called Gang of Five, made up of Oswald, Jennifer Howard, Erin Selby, Stan Struthers and Andrew Swan, resigned on the same day, citing concerns over being able to speak their minds in government. Ashton did not join them at the time in resigning.

The deadline to join the race is Jan. 6 and voting is expected to happen in March during the NDP convention.

In his resignation letter to the premier, Ashton writes:

“I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve in your cabinet as Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation and as Government House Leader. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve the people of Manitoba in a number of senior roles within the Legislature and government as an MLA and Minister.

“Like many others, I regret the public conflict within both the government and party and confusion and negativity this has created with the general public.

“I understand that within all parties, caucuses and cabinets there are always legitimately and strongly held differences of opinions between individuals. I also have respected the long standing traditions of both the party and parliamentary system where those differences have been dealt with internally. If the differences were irreconcilable, the honourable action was for resignations to be offered and Cabinet and caucus solidarity and confidentiality upheld.

“Although we haven’t agreed on all issues over the years, I have respected your position as Premier and the positions of fellow cabinet and caucus members. I believe that you have acted with principle and integrity in your role as Minister and Premier.

“Our government has many accomplishments to be proud of. We have brought in many important initiatives that have enhanced the quality of life for all Manitobans. We should all take credit for the successes we have shared and responsibility for the times we have fallen short of the mark. We all know that we have much more to do, but unfortunately the events of the past few weeks and months have temporarily distracted us from that goal.

“I believe that we are at a crossroads as a party and a government. I believe we must reconnect with Manitobans and put forward a clear vision for our province. We must lead our party and government through this current crisis and beyond. That is why I am entering the leadership race.

“I believe we need to give the party membership the opportunity to choose a Leader who can engage our membership, bring the party back together and reconnect with Manitobans.

“Greg, my entry into the race should not be interpreted as any reflection on your personal commitment and the hard work you and our government have done over the past six years. I have particularly appreciated working with you on such critical issues as fighting major floods and building our core infrastructure. We should be proud of what we have accomplished and I believe that the NDP can continue to enhance the quality of life for all Manitobans.

“I will be tendering my resignation from Cabinet effective 12:00 midnight December 22, 2014 as I believe that it is inappropriate to continue to be a member of Cabinet while competing for the leadership of a party in government. This will enable me to put forward my ideas, hopes and aspirations for a united party based on the principles and long traditions of the NDP and a return to government that translates those fundamental beliefs into positive action.

“I assure you that whatever the outcome of the leadership contest, I remain committed to working with the NDP, our caucus and within government, no matter who the Leader is, to continue to create a better Manitoba.”

There has never been a Manitoba premier from Northern Manitoba. Former NDP premier Gary Doer stepped down in 2009, before being named by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Ashton ran for the party leadership and premier’s job in 2009 against Selinger and former justice minister Andrew Swan, who dropped out of the race early making it a two-way Ashton-Selinger contest.

While Ashton outspent both his rivals in the leadership race in 2009, Selinger  took almost two-thirds of the ballots cast and sailed to victory in the two-way race with 1,317 votes to Ashton’s 685. None of Ashton’s cabinet colleagues, some who had sat around the cabinet table with him for a decade, supported his bid to become premier in 2009, but this may well be a different sort of race in 2015. Ashton is expected to get at least some benefit in certain NDP quarters for remaining loyal during the Gang of Five crisis this past fall, where Selinger named him to replace Swan as government house leader.

There have only been a dozen provincial general elections since the Thompson riding was created in June 1969. Ashton has won three quarters of them – or the last nine – which is every one he has contested.

Ashton, a native of Surrey in England, came to Canada at the age of 11 with his family. His dad was unemployed, he noted in April 2008, when they arrived in Toronto in 1967, and they moved the same year to Thompson.

Ashton, 58, is a leap-year baby, born Feb. 29, 1956. A graduate of R.D. Parker Collegiate in Thompson and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, he received his M. A. in economics from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and is an economist. He was president of the University of Manitoba Students Union in 1978-79 and has lectured in economics for the former Inter Universities North in Thompson and Cross Lake.

At the age of 25, Ashton was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the Nov. 17, 1981 provincial election for the NDP in the Thompson riding, defeating one-term Progressive Conservative Labour Minister Ken MacMaster, the 47-year-old incumbent elected in 1977, by 72 votes in a race that has entered the realm of local political folklore.  Ashton garnered 2,890 votes to MacMaster’s 2,818. Liberal Cy Hennessey finished dead last with 138 votes. At the time of his first election, Ashton was involved in an Inco strike as a member of Local 6166 of the Steelworkers. Ashton still gets a kick out of pointing out his shift boss voted him for him, saying he would make a better politician than a miner.

In November 2006, looking back at having served 25 years as Thompson’s NDP MLA, Ashton noted, “What matters is getting results,” he said, pointing to former Premier Ed Schreyer and Joe Borowski as two people he looked to for inspiration.

Borowski, Thompson’s first MLA when the new provincial riding came into existence in June 1969, defeated former Thompson mayor Tim Johnston’s father, Dr. Blain Johnston, by seven votes in the Feb. 20, 1969 byelection in the old provincial riding of Churchill. He went on four months later to win the newly created riding in the June 25, 1969 general election.

Ashton joined the NDP because he says he was inspired by what “Joe Borowski and the NDP had done in the North, particularly in terms of highways and what Premier Ed Schreyer and the NDP had done in the North and provincially.” He volunteered in the 1973 campaign and canvassed around Pike and Pickerel crescents where he currently lives.

He worked at Inco numerous times – either as a summer student or full time between 1972 and 1981. This included working in transportation, process technology, maintenance, the smelter and refinery, and finally in 1981 T-1 underground.

To understand the longevity and the consistency of Ashton’s left-of-centre democratically socialist ideology, look back to two key years – first, 1977, and then the fall of 1981 and his first victory as MLA: “To understand 1981 you have to go back to 1977,” Ashton told me in October 2011. “Schreyer and the NDP had been defeated. A few weeks after the election Thompson was hit by major cuts in jobs at Inco. It was also hit with major cuts and layoffs by the Tories. This initially included initially eliminating the Inter Universities North, which was the only university presence we had in the North at the time. Construction on the Limestone Dam was also stopped. The combination devastated Thompson.”

Ashton did not serve in the cabinet of Howard Pawley for the seven years he led the NDP in Manitoba as premier from 1981 to 1988, but easily won re-election in 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1988 and Ashton served for a time as house leader for the NDP in opposition. He served as labour critic, health critic and led the fight against the privatization of MTS in 1997.

When Doer became premier in October 1999, Ashton was appointed as minister of highways and government services. Following a cabinet shuffle in September 2002, Ashton became minister of conservation. In June 2003, he was also made minister of labour and immigration with responsibility for multiculturalism and administration of The Workers Compensation Act.

In November 2003, he was named as the province’s first minister of water stewardship and in 2007 was shuffled to the post of minister of intergovernmental affairs and minister responsible for emergency measures.

Hari Dimitrakopoulou-Ashton, his wife,teaches mathematics in the business administration program in the Roblin Centre at Red River College in Winnipeg. She is also the author of Women Entrepreneurs in the North. She moved to Thompson with Steve in December 1979.

The Ashtons have two children. Daughter Niki Ashton is serving her second term in the House of Commons as NDP MP for the federal riding of Churchill here in Northern Manitoba. She was first elected to Parliament in October 2008 and re-elected in the May 2011 election. A former instructor at University College of the North (UCN), she is married to Ryan Barker, a local school teacher and an up-and-coming Thompson Playhouse thespian and audience favourite. Steve and Hari’s son, Alexander Ashton, Niki’s younger brother, recently completed a four-year term on the board of trustees of the School District of Mystery Lake, including a stint as board chair. He is a civil technology instructor at UCN and has been living abroad in Europe for the past few months.

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Alain Huberdeau, senior partner with Law North LLP in Thompson, appointed a provincial court judge

Alain Huberdeau, left, senior partner with Law North LLP in Thompson, has been appointed pursuant to an order-in-council as a provincial court judge for Thompson by Manitoba NDP Attorney General Andrew Swan.

At right is Mario LeClerc, grand knight of Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961, presenting Huberdeau with a plaque last Dec. 7 from local Knights at the council’s annual awards banquet at St. Lawrence Parish Hall, honoring him, and his wife, Andree Catellier, with the 2013 “Family of the Year Award” for having “served as an inspiration to our parish, community and council by supporting and strengthening Christian family life.”

As well, last Jan. 24, the Manitoba Bar Association (MBA), gave Huberdeau its annual Community Involvement Award at its MBA Recognition Awards luncheon in Winnipeg.

Huberdeau, the second provincial court judicial appointment for Thompson in 2½ months, replaces Judge Murray Thompson, who has relocated to Winnipeg. Thompson, appointed a judge of the provincial court on March 26, 2003, served as associate chief judge of the provincial court for seven years, from Aug. 2, 2006 until Aug. 1, 2013.

On July 16, Swan appointed Catherine Louise Hembroff, who had served as supervising senior Crown attorney in The Pas, to the provincial court bench here to replace Judge Brian Colli, who retired at the end of May to relocate to  Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, near Yarmouth. Colli graduated from Dalhousie University law school in Halifax and was admitted to the bar in 1979 and came to Thompson as a Crown attorney himself that same year. He was appointed a judge of the provincial court by order-in-council on Sept. 21, 1994.

Huberdeau and Hembroff are tentatively set to be officially sworn-in here Oct. 31. They join Judge Doreen Redhead, who also sits on the provincial court judge bench in Thompson. She was appointed to the provincial court on April 4, 2007. Redhead, from Fox Lake Cree Nation, was born in Churchill and is the first aboriginal woman appointed to the provincial court bench in Manitoba. She graduated from the University of Manitoba law school in 1996.

Huberdeau, who was called to the Manitoba bar in 1997, received his law degree from the French language Université de Moncton Faculty of Law,  one of only two law schools in Canada offering a common law legal education taught entirely in French, with the other law school being the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Huberdeau grew up in St. Lazare is in western Manitoba, close to the Saskatchewan provincial boundary, at the forks of the Assiniboine River and Qu’Appelle River.

Law North LLP, and its predecessor law firms here named after various partners here over the last 50 years since its establishment in 1964, has a distinguished history in having seven of its lawyers go onto serve on the bench as judges, including just in recent years, Colli, Thompson, and Malcolm McDonald, senior partner in the law firm, then known as McDonald Huberdeau, who was appointed as provincial court judge for The Pas by Swan on Feb. 3, 2010.

Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Holly Beard, also a former city councillor, however, was appointed to the bench from the law firm then known as  Bancroft, Whidden, Mayer and Buzza, known now as Mayer, Dearman and Pellizzaro.   Beard initially received a federal order-in-council appointment as justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench for Manitoba on Nov. 27, 1992, and was elevated to the Manitoba Court of  Appeal on Sept. 9, 2009.  A 1970 graduate of R.D. Parker Collegiate, Beard graduated from law school at the University of Manitoba in 1977 and was called to the bar in 1978.

Her father, Gordon Beard, whom the arena is named after here, was elected as Progressive Conservative  MLA for the constituency of Churchill, which then included Thompson, in 1963. He was re-elected in 1966 but resigned from the Progressive Conservative Party and stepped down as an MLA in 1968, complaining that the government was neglecting Northern affairs. He ran as an independent in the 1969 provincial election, defeating three other candidates, to regain the Churchill seat in the legislature. Gordon Beard suffered a heart attack and died in office at the age of 51 on Nov. 12, 1972.

More recently as well,  Judge Ken Champagne, who became chief judge of the provincial court on July 9, 2009, and was appointed to the provincial bench in 2005, began his legal career by articling in the Crown attorney’s office here in 1993. For many years he worked in Thompson, and was for a time supervising senior Crown attorney.

Huberdeau has been active in the community, including through his work with Our Foundation Thompson, formerly known as the Thompson Community Foundation, which was formed in 1995. With the establishment of the Moffat Family Fund in Winnipeg in December 2001 and the decision the following year to make its grant money more widely available elsewhere in Manitoba, Our Foundation Thompson benefited from that and its resources have grown substantially since then. The Moffat family made their fortune in the cable television business. The foundation describes itself as a “savings account” created by gifts from current and former citizens, businesses and community organizations. The money in the foundation’s endowment is never spent, but managed to produce an annual return that can be invested in local projects and organizations.

Our Foundation Thompson will be holding its annual fall gala Sept. 27  – tomorrow night  – at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Hall on Juniper Drive.

Huberdeau has also been an active member of Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961, chartered with 59 members on May 6, 1967.  The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal benefit organization headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut. Its origins date back to an Oct. 2, 1881 meeting organized by Father Michael J. McGivney, the assistant pastor at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven. The Knights of Columbus, made up of Father McGivney, Matthew C. O’Connor, Cornelius T. Driscoll, James T. Mullen, John T. Kerrigan, Daniel Colwell and William M. Geary, were officially chartered by the general assembly of the State of Connecticut on March 29, 1882, as a fraternal benefit society.

Huberdeau, a long-time member of the Knights of Columbus,  who was the incumbent  financial secretary for the local council, which largely serves the two parishes of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church on Cree Road and St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church on Juniper Drive, is  tendering his resignation from that post because of his judicial appointment. He has also served previously as grand knight for Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 and district deputy for District 5,  made up of councils in The Pas, Flin Flon and Thompson.

Manitoba provincial court judges earn an annual base salary of $230,155.

Huberdeau was selected from a list of candidates recommended by an independent judicial nominating committee, chaired by Champagne. The committee also included three community representatives, representatives of the Law Society of Manitoba, the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Bar Association and a provincial court judge in addition to Champagne.

Unlike superior court justices, such as Beard, judges from the Manitoba Court of Appeal and Court of Queen’s Bench, who are federally appointed, provincial court judges are provincially appointed by Swan upon the recommendation of the judicial nominating committee.

It was the responsibility of the judicial nominating committee to recommend to Swan a list of not fewer than three and not more than six names of individuals for the position to fill the vacancy created by Thompson’s departure.

Applicants must have practiced for not less than five years as a barrister and solicitor in Manitoba, be a member in good standing of The Law Society of Manitoba, and be entitled to practice as a barrister and solicitor in this province, or have other equivalent experience.

They hold office “during good behaviour” and must reside in the province.

Applicants must be willing to reside in Thompson, and be capable of and willing to travel by automobile and small aircraft to circuit courts throughout the province.

Judicial responsibilities include a caseload of criminal cases and child protection matters.

The Provincial Court Act establishes the provincial court of Manitoba. It is a court of record and has primarily a criminal jurisdiction, as well as limited concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of Queen’s Bench in family law matters that originate outside of Winnipeg. More than 95 per cent of all criminal cases in Manitoba commence in the provincial court.

After an individual is charged, the provincial court hears applications for judicial interim release, more commonly known as bail hearings, presides over first appearances for the accused, and holds preliminary hearings to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to order an accused to stand trial. The provincial court also hears all youth court cases in Manitoba.

In addition to cases under the Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the provincial court hears cases under a variety of other federal statutes, such as: the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and hears all provincial statute cases, such as those under The Highway Traffic Act and The Liquor Control Act. The court also presides over inquests under The Fatality Inquiries Act, and reviews alleged police misconduct under The Law Enforcement Review Act.

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