Manitoba Progressive Conservatives choose Obby Khan as new party leader

Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have selected Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan to serve as the party's new leader in another close contest between an established member of the party caucus and a populist conservative outsider.

In a vote conducted by mail-in ballot, Khan defeated Wally Daudrich, who owns a hotel and ecotourism business in Churchill, Man., winning 2,198.8 points under a weighted ballot system to Daudrich's 2,163.2, party leadership selection committee chair Brad Zander announced Saturday at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Winnipeg.

Khan's victory gave him 50.4 per cent of the available 4,362 points, while Daudrich received 49.6 per cent of the available points. The close result arrived following a six-month leadership race.

Khan said after the announcement he was paying more attention to the result of the race than he did to the small margin of his victory.

"I think my previous life in football really prepared me for this. It was really back into game-day mode," said Khan, a former offensive lineman in the Canadian Football League.

The PC leadership contest was sparked by the resignation of former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson, who stepped down as party leader in early 2024, months after her PCs lost the fall 2023 provincial election to Wab Kinew's NDP.

Following her departure, the party appointed Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko as interim leader and decided on a lengthy contest to select a new permanent one.

The party gave prospective contestants six months to sign up for the race and another six months to campaign, partly to avoid a repeat of the party's disputed 2021 leadership race between Stefanson and former Conservative MP Shelly Glover.

That race was also close — Stefanson won by 363 votes.

Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen, who served as Manitoba's interim premier for two months in 2021, said he doesn't believe the small margin of victory for Khan means very much.

"The reality is, I think these days in politics every election seems to be close," said Goertzen, who endorsed Khan's campaign. "Now it's up to Obby to prove that he can bring the party together."

Khan, who was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in a 2022 byelection, was endorsed by 10 out of 20 members of the PC caucus ahead of Saturday's vote.

During the lengthy leadership race, he positioned himself as better able to lead the opposition party out of the political wilderness on the basis he already has a seat in the legislature. 

Khan made few policy announcements during the campaign. He promised to pursue more public-private partnerships within the health-care system and provide municipalities with an undisclosed portion of provincial sales tax revenue.