Taxation expert, longtime Manitoba PC member mulls run for party leadership

September 9, 2024 Canuck

A Winnipeg taxation expert who worked for several major consulting firms is mulling a run for the leadership of Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative Party, which has been without a permanent leader since Heather Stefanson resigned in January.

Trevor Sprague, who has been a Manitoba PC party member for 40 years and once ran as a candidate for the Canadian Alliance, a federal conservative party, said he will decide by the end of the week whether to throw his name into a leadership race.

So far, the only officially declared candidate is Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan.

“My support of the party and its principles have never wavered during the 40 years that I have been one of its members,” Sprague said Friday in a statement.

“I want our party to have a leader who will confidently promote conservative values and proudly offer a robust plan of intelligent and thoughtful ideas to the people of Manitoba.”

Sprague has worked with three of North America’s largest taxation consultants. According to his LinkedIn resume, he worked as a partner for MNP, a senior manager with PwC and a taxation manager with Ernst & Young.

In the 2000 federal election, Sprague ran in Winnipeg North-St. Paul as a candidate for the Canadian Alliance, one of the predecessors of the modern Conservative Party. He finished second to Liberal incumbent Rey Pagtakhan.

Sprague is also married to Jenny Motkaluk, who finished second to Brian Bowman in the 2018 Winnipeg mayoral race and made another run for mayor in 2022.

Sprague said he is consulting with his family, friends and colleagues before he makes a decision about the PC leadership race.

A man in a checkered suit and a white shirt stands on a lawn. — Obby Khan, the MLA for Fort Whyte, is the only candidate to confirm a run for PC leader. (Ian Froese/CBC)

As of Friday, Khan is the only candidate to confirm a run for the PC leadership, though several people have requested application packages, PC leadership selection committee chair Brad Zander said.

The deadline for candidates to submit their nomination packages is Oct. 15. No candidate, including Khan, had submitted a completed package as of Friday, Zander said.

The PCs will choose their next leader on April 26. Until then, Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko is serving as interim leader.

The party chose to hold a lengthy leadership race in order to ensure there would be no repeat of problems that emerged during an abbreviated contest in 2021.

After that race, candidate Shelly Glover went to court to challenge Stefanson’s selection as party leader, which resulted in the latter becoming Manitoba’s premier.

Stefanson’s PC government was defeated in 2023 by Wab Kinew’s NDP. She announced in January that she would step down as party leader, and later stepped down as the MLA for Tuxedo.

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