Selinger looks to stay
grounded in St. Boniface
By Melissa Martin March 11, 2010 |
After 10 years as the MLA for St. Boniface, former finance minister Greg Selinger stepped into the province’s top job last week when he won the NDP leadership race against Thompson MLA Steve Ashton.
Lance reporter Melissa Martin caught up with Selinger only four days after he moved into Gary Doer’s old office to chat for a few minutes about adapting to his new gig.
Q: Congratulations on your premiership. How’s the first week on the job been?
A: Hectic. It’s been great. I’ve been out meeting with all kinds of folks.
Q: How do you plan now to balance representing St. Boniface with the duties of premier?
A: I don’t think it will be a problem, because I live right in my constituency, which is 10 minutes from the Legislature. Obviously I’ll be out more, travelling more, but I’m well-grounded in my area. For instance, just last night I was at the Safeway (on Marion) buying groceries.
Q: Out of all the things you’ve learned as MLA of St. Boniface, what lessons do you think have been the most valuable in preparing you for the premiership?
A: I think one of the most important things is to never lose contact with the people around you. To take those walks in the neighbourhood, to walk to work, to be involved with the routines of daily life.
By being involved you get a flavour of what’s going on, and an idea of people’s feelings and concerns. The most important thing is to stay grounded.
Q: You mention walking to work. What’s your favourite walk in St. B?
A: I do like that walk on Provencher over the new footbridge, to the Forks, to the CNR building and through to downtown.
Q: There are a lot of issues of special importance to St. Boniface that have increasing relevance to the province as a whole, particularly in areas like Francophone services and immigration. What do you hope to accomplish as premier in regards to those issues?
A: Immigration is a very important program to us. Last year we had more people come to Manitoba than we’ve had in 40 years.
The most important part is to help with settlement once people get here, to get them integrated with proper schooling and the labour market. We’ve been investing more in services to help (on that end).
With French language services, we’ve always taken a pragmatic approach of trying to do practical things that improve the ability of people to have access to services they need. Obviously, St. Boniface, St. Vital and St. Norbert would be three focal points of that... for example schools, for example the bilingual service centre (at 1001 St. Mary’s Rd.) that just opened. Places like College universitaire St. Boniface, making sure it’s a vital institution.
Q: OK, let’s talk fun stuff. Favourite place in your constituency to take visitors?
A: The focal point is usually the cathedral. Just to have the river, and The Forks, and the tomb of Louis Riel... there’s a lot of history.
Q: Word association time. The first thing I think of when I think of St. Boniface is...
A: History. Language. Louis Riel.
Q: If I could have dinner with one historical St. Boniface figure, I would pick...
A: It’d probably be Louis Riel, just because as the founder of Manitoba, he was such a seminal figure.
Q: And what would you talk about?
A: I’m sure he would have an interest in talking about fair trials (laughs). No, he’d have a lot to say about how to bring people together in a consensus government. He brought people from all sides of the community together.
