COLUMN: Think Again – Kinew’s popularity is going to his head

With a 66 percent approval reading, Wab Kinew is currently the most popular premier in Canada.

And it isn’t even close. The next most popular premiers are 20 points behind Kinew with only 46 percent approval. At this point, Kinew is in a league of his own.

When a politician becomes this popular, one of two things usually happens. Either that politician takes these numbers with a grain of salt and maintains a sense of humility, or he lets these numbers go to his head and becomes increasingly arrogant over time.

Unfortunately, it looks like Kinew has chosen option number two.

Kinew’s arrogance was on full display during Question Period last week. When Progressive Conservative leader Wayne Ewasko asked Kinew what additional services and programs the government plans to cut to deal with a mounting provincial deficit, Kinew haughtily responded that the only thing his government had cut recently was the size of the PC caucus.

Kinew boasted that the NDP won the Tuxedo byelection on June 18 and stole what used to be a safe PC seat. While Kinew has every right to be pleased with this victory, it’s arrogant to still be publicly gloating about it four months later—particularly since this byelection had nothing to do with Ewasko’s question.

Things got even weirder when Kinew claimed that Ewasko had run out of questions to ask during the previous day’s estimates process. His voice rising in triumph, Kinew stated that this must mean that the PCs are totally fine with everything his government was doing with healthcare, education, and tax policy.

However, what actually happened was that Ewasko chose to yield some of his speaking time to one of Kinew’s former caucus colleagues—independent MLA Mark Wasyliw. This was strategically smart on Ewasko’s part since he knows that Wasyliw is uniquely able to get under Kinew’s skin. In fact, Kinew despises Wasyliw so much that he concocted a fake rationale to expel him from caucus last month, and only retreated from it after receiving an avalanche of criticism from the legal community.

When Roblin MLA Kathleen Cook followed up with questions about why Kinew’s government had cancelled several much-needed school expansion projects, Kinew proclaimed that Manitobans know his government has the best education policies. One wonders whether the parents of children in these overcrowded schools would agree.

To show just how little these projects matter to Kinew, he then pivoted to once again claim that the PCs had run out of questions to ask him on the previous day. Kinew then sanctimoniously said that he felt sorry for the rural PC MLAs since they weren’t being given the opportunity to ask any questions.

Of course, this was total nonsense. PC MLAs were asking Kinew plenty of questions; they just weren’t receiving any answers. When La Verendrye MLA Konrad Narth asked acting education minister Tracy Schmidt to reinstate the much-needed Green Valley School expansion project, Schmidt took a page from her boss’s playbook and triumphantly started listing all the former teachers and trustees currently serving in the NDP caucus.

If you don’t believe this happened or think I might be exaggerating, go on YouTube and watch the October 16 Question Period for yourself. You will see Kinew’s arrogance on full display.

While Kinew might think that he can do no wrong, his mistakes will eventually catch up with him. Voters don’t like it when politicians become arrogant and start taking their support for granted.

Wab Kinew isn’t the first politician to let his popularity go to his head. Pride goes before a fall and Kinew’s fall will be steep indeed.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.