Shannon Martin is the latest Manitoba Tory to opt out of upcoming election
WINNIPEG — Shannon Martin, a longtime backbencher who says he sometimes rubbed people the wrong way, is the latest progressive conservative in Manitoba to choose not to run in the provincial election scheduled for Oct. 3.
Martin joins several other Tories who have announced in recent months that they will leave politics at a time when the ruling Tories continue to lag the opposition New Democrats in opinion polls.
“Political life is like a relationship. You’re always going to have ups and downs and sometimes things just don’t work out,” Martin, 52, said in an interview on Wednesday.
“And you have to make that decision that it’s what’s best for me personally and for my family to just move on to new opportunities.”
Around a third of the Tories elected in 2019 have resigned or announced they will no longer run in the past few months. Some were high-profile cabinet ministers, such as former Treasury Secretary Cameron Friesen, who announced his resignation last month to run for the Conservative federal nomination in Portage-Lisgar.
Martin was first elected in a 2014 by-election in Morris, a powerful Tory seat south of Winnipeg, and was re-elected two years later. When his seat disappeared under the redistribution of electoral boundaries, he received a nomination in a more NDP-leaning constituency, McPhillips, which includes parts of northern Winnipeg and some rural areas. He won again.
Despite his reputation as a hard worker and previous experience with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Martin never received a cabinet job, even like most other Tories in the Winnipeg area during various cabinet reshuffles under former Prime Minister Brian Pallister and his successor Heather Stefanson.
Martin announced plans to run for Tory leadership during the contest, which Stefanson won in 2021, but fell short of the 1,000 new membership sales needed to enter the race.
Last autumn Martin tried to secure the Tory nomination in the Midland constituency, which includes part of the former Morris seat he held but finished behind Lauren Stone.
Martin said he had no regrets about his political career but did not go into detail.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve probably rubbed a few people wrong over the years – particularly those in power. But I stand by every decision I’ve made.”
A political analyst said it’s never clear why Martin, who shares some of the same progressive views on social issues as Stefanson, was passed over for cabinet.
“I don’t know why he was disfellowshipped (and) wasn’t destined to play a bigger role,” said Paul Thomas, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.
Martin said he was confident there would be no shortage of interested candidates for the Tory nomination at McPhillips.
“I support our prime minister,” he said. “I think she has a significant task ahead of her, but she has shown herself to be an able leader who will successfully lead this party into the next elections.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on February 22, 2023
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