WINNIPEG - Manitoba Premier Gary Doer is rallying rank-and-file NDP members for an upcoming election with dire warnings about what a Conservative government would do to the province.
In a spirited speech Saturday to 600 delegates at the party's annual convention, Doer painted his chief rivals as indifferent to the environment and farmers, and uninterested in making health care and education a priority.
But Doer saved his sharpest barbs for what he is convinced is Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen's plan to privatize Manitoba Hydro.
McFadyen, who won the leadership last year, was the senior advisor to former Tory premier Gary Filmon and helped orchestrate the privatization of Manitoba Telecom Services.
Doer is adamant Manitoba Hydro should remain a Crown corporation.
"Are we ready to fight in 2007 for Manitoba Hydro being owned by all the people of Manitoba, not being sold off by the Conservatives?" Doer asked to boisterous applause.
McFadyen has repeatedly denied any intention to sell off the company.
But Doer says Filmon made the same promise about the provincial phone company in the 1995 election campaign and did an about-face months later.
"He is going to use his sneaky Conservative strategy again," said Doer.
"Let's tell every Manitoban Hugh McFadyen is a privatizer and we're not going to let him sell Manitoba Hydro."
McFadyen said hydroelectricity and telecommunications can't be compared because Manitoba Hydro involves dams, transmission lines and the water supply.
"MTS was a completely different situation," McFadyen said Saturday.
"It's irresponsible for a government to stay in a competitive marketplace.
"Hydro is completely and totally different. It would make no sense at all to privatize it."
Doer, who is in the fourth year of his mandate, will seek a third term as premier.
The NDP hold 35 of the province's 57 seats. The Conservatives are the official Opposition with 19, while the Liberals have two and one seat is vacant.
While Saturday's address sounded every bit like a stump speech, Doer remained coy about timing an election.
The Conservatives have gained ground under McFadyen, but recent polls suggest the NDP still lead because of their strength in Winnipeg.
Doer said he still has a few more things he wants to do before an election. He also doesn't want a campaign too close to a federal vote.
"If anyone can predict what's going on in Ottawa right now, please tell me," said Doer.
The theme of the NDP's weekend convention is "Forward, not back" and Doer used his speech to characterize the Tories as backward across the board.
He chastised McFadyen for not supporting the province's symbolic plebiscite on the future of the Canadian Wheat Board.
McFadyen has said the board is federal jurisdiction. But Doer says that mindset would leave Manitoba out of important discussions in areas like the floodway, the military and the federal virology lab in Winnipeg.
"We have come to the conclusion that (federal Agriculture Minister) Chuck Strahl is the Alberta-centric organ grinder and Hugh McFadyen and the Manitoba Tories are the Alberta-centric monkeys."
Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton used his speech Saturday to reiterate his party's commitment to addressing climate change.
He said the federal government has time to take action in the next few weeks, before a spring budget that could trigger an election.
He said legislation could be passed quickly on fuel efficiency standards for the auto sector or setting pollution limits on the country's biggest polluters.
He said he'd rather get things done in Parliament than trigger an election, but he isn't talking yet about making deals with the federal Conservatives.
"I think Mr. Harper is simply going to have to change direction," said Layton.
"Surely it's time for him to abandon his somewhat ideological grip on old views and take a new approach."
