The Manitoba Party is dedicated to restoring the Fundamental Properties that voters have been asking for and that they are legitimately entitled to. These Properties include: Accountability – Transparency of Government Actions and Intentions – Honesty and Integrity. The Manitoba Party understands the frustration of the voters and why they have grown increasingly cynical about the political process and why many have stopped voting altogether. Our members demand better performance and have no interest in hearing anymore excuses.

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

 

Accountability is a word that often gets repeated in political speeches and in advertising, but it is seldom demonstrated in politics. It’s a word that has been greatly over used, but the failure to practice it in any meaningful way, has rendered it of little worth. In the Private Sector, someone is always held accountable for lack of success or for unacceptable behavior, but the same rules do not always apply to the Public Sector or to those who are elected to high office. Coaches and General Managers are regularly fired from their sports team when the results fail to meet expectations, but some Public Servants are able to rise to certain levels in the bureaucracy where they can dodge accountability without effort.

Politicians, at the highest levels, get away with poor performance, Ethics Violations and with breaches of the Public Trust with an astonishing degree of ease and impunity. They are often remorseless and their actions suggest that they consider themselves to be exempt from any scrutiny and from the same laws that everyone else lives under. The public has lost confidence in the Political Process and for very good reason. All politicians benefit from the salaries and benefits that they receive, as a result of being elected, but many quickly forget that they were hired by the voters and that they were elected to work (serve) on behalf of those voters. The arrogance and the disdain shown towards the voters who ask legitimate questions and who remind them of their primary duty is unbecoming to those who bear the name, Public Servant. The Manitoba Party understands what Accountability means and we will ensure that we are always fully accountable to the People of Manitoba. 

 

The greatest duty that every elected person owes to the People of Manitoba is to serve them to the best of their ability and to be accountable for their actions. Our Code of Conduct includes the process that will be used to ensure that all complaints made against a Member of the Manitoba Party is investigated fairly and properly. The Manitoba Party will provide full disclosure of its intended actions and answer the questions that arise from those disclosures. The Manitoba Party will ensure that those who are entrusted with Powers of Management act with Integrity and with the highest degree of Fairness. All Policies affecting Government Employees that are implemented to govern the conduct of those employees, will be strictly enforced. All Public Servants promoted to positions of Supervision, Management, or higher, will have a greater

degree of responsibility to demonstrate Leadership in matters of conduct.

 

TRANSPARENCY

 

Transparency is another overused word that no longer means very much. The road to political power is quite littered with an abundance of broken promises made to voters assuring them that, “We will be the most transparent government in modern history”, but with little intention of fulfilling that promise. The Manitoba Party does not use words gratuitously and we will not attempt to persuade voters with empty promises that we are not capable of fulfilling, or have no intention of keeping. Transparency means being visible in all of our actions with no attempt to hide our

intentions or to mislead by clever manipulation of words. The Manitoba Party respects the intelligence of the voters and understands that they know the difference between being truly transparent and deliberately obscure.

 

HONESTY AND INTEGRITY

 

Honesty and Integrity are words that correspond to a person’s Character and should not be used to describe those who do not act in accordance with the meaning of those words. Purely random acts of honesty and random demonstrations of integrity are not sufficient to earn the public’s trust. As the saying goes – even a broken clock tells the

correct time twice each day, but is wrong all of the other times in between. Character is built during a lifetime from making good choices and from avoiding bad ones. Integrity means undivided wholeness and not being double-minded. 

 

We can speak of a wooden boards as having good integrity and being suitable for construction,

when we can see that there are no indications of wood rot or warping. Politically speaking, Honesty means telling the truth and Integrity means that you are consistent with what you say. A person of integrity doesn’t change what they say, or try to dodge responsibility for what they have said, regardless of the circumstances. Over time, a person earns the reputation that they have and many politicians have deservedly earned reputations of not being honest or trustworthy. The public has lost confidence in their political leaders to be truthful and to act with any measure of integrity. The Manitoba Party is committed to saying what we mean and meaning what we say. We will not pretend to have superior knowledge of any issue, but we will make diligent effort to learn and to understand the issues so that we can find the right method of dealing with them.