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Obby Khan is stepping down from his position as leader of Manitoba’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives.
Khan made the announcement just after 5 p.m. CT Monday, after he survived what appears to be a symbolic confidence vote on Friday.
It’s not clear which member of the PC caucus triggered that vote, or for what reason.
Speaking to reporters at the legislature Monday evening, Khan said the votes in that confidence motion were two to one in his favour, but some caucus members were unwilling to accept the results.
“A small group of MLAs have decided that those results are still not enough,” he said.
Throughout the course of the weekend, Khan said he’d learned that some members of the PC caucus planned to meet Monday evening in what he described as an effort to “subvert the democratic will” of the caucus.
He said if he did not step down, the coming months would have been spent fighting members of his own party, rather than holding the governing NDP to account.
“I will not fight my own party and caucus,” he said.
Khan said he will resign from the PC caucus, effective Tuesday, but will continue on as the MLA for the Winnipeg constituency of Fort Whyte, sitting as an Independent.
“I cannot be a part of a caucus with a small minority membership that lacks moral integrity, that will not abide by our rules, our principles, our code,” he said.
Khan thanked some members of the members of the 20-person PC caucus by name during his resignation speech, including former interim party leader Kelvin Goertzen, as well as MLAs Ron Schuler, Greg Nesbitt, Rick Wowchuk, Derek Johnson, Trevor King and Colleen Robbins.
‘Far bigger than me’
Khan became the party leader last year, after former Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson stepped down in early 2024.
He won the leadership in a tightly contested leadership race against Wally Daudrich, a Churchill hotel and ecotourism company owner who has since quit the party.
Khan, who was an entrepreneur and a former football player with the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers before entering politics, was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 2022, winning the Fort Whyte seat in Winnipeg in a byelection.
He became leader in a contest sparked by the resignation of Stefanson, who stepped down as party leader months after her PCs lost the fall 2023 provincial election to Wab Kinew’s NDP.
When elected the role last year, Khan became the first Muslim, as well as the first Canadian from a South Asian ethnic background, to lead the party.
“For the first time in the party’s history, someone who looked like me, prayed like me, carried a family story like mine stood here as the party leader,” Khan said Monday, having to pause to collect himself as his voice cracked with emotion.
“That is far bigger than me.… Whatever happens after today remains history.”
Currently, the Tories hold 20 seats in the 57-seat Manitoba Legislature. The governing NDP have 34, the Liberals hold one and there are two Independents.
The next provincial election is not slated until October 2027.
Under the PC Party’s constitution, a new leadership race can only be triggered at this point in the election cycle if the position becomes vacant, the leader ends up mentally or physically incapacitated, the leader requests a leadership race or a simple majority of PC members vote in favour of a race at a general meeting.
Manitoba’s legislature is slated to resume on Tuesday.
The PC Party said as of Monday evening, it did not yet know who will be serving as interim Opposition leader.
More to come.