Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative Party has appointed Konrad Narth as interim leader after Obby Khan stepped down on Monday.
“I think there’s a better path forward for this province, and the Progressive Conservatives are committed to showing Manitobans exactly what that looks like,” Narth said Tuesday during his first appearance as interim leader of the Opposition party.
“We’re moving forward for all Manitobans.”
PC deputy caucus chair Josh Guenter announced him as unanimous choice for the role following a closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday morning.
Narth, the MLA for La Verendrye in the province’s southeast, thanked Khan for his service but said a new direction was needed after three consecutive polls suggested support for Khan was dwindling and “concerns [were] brought forward.”
Khan announced Monday evening that he was resigning as party leader and as a PC member effective Tuesday — the same day the legislature resumes sitting.
Obby Khan announces he’s stepping down as leader of the Opposition Progressive Conservatives at the Manitoba Legislature on Monday. (Bartley Kives/CBC)
He will continue to represent the Winnipeg constituency of Fort Whyte as an Independent, he said.
The party will now decide the process and timelines for a leadership race, said Narth, who won’t be putting his name forward.
“I’m here to do the work to move us to that next point,” he said.
“We’re here to move forward with a leader that’s willing and capable to show Manitobans who we are.”
There are now 19 PCs, one Liberal and three Independents facing Premier Wab Kinew’s 34 New Democrats in the 57-seat legislature. The next scheduled provincial election date is in October 2027.
Narth said the PCs must show the public they are a party for everyone. When asked if that wasn’t the case before, he said it clearly wasn’t resonating as such.
Narth dismissed any suggestion the party is splintered.
“We’re not fractured. I’d say we’re more than united,” he said.
“I have not heard that there is any member of our caucus that isn’t pulling together with the direction that we’re committed to here today.”
However, just 15 of the party’s MLAs attended Tuesday’s announcement. Among the missing were Kelvin Goertzen, Ron Schuler and Trevor King, all of whom were among Tory MLAs Khan thanked by name during his resignation speech on Monday. The other missing MLA was Jeff Wharton.
Some MLAs are on hunting trips, Narth said, explaining the absences.
“There’s life that also comes in the way.”
Khan announced his resignation just after 5 p.m. Monday at the legislative building in Winnipeg, saying divisions within the PC caucus left him no choice.
Some days … he was the most likeable guy on Earth, and other days he was not.- Former campaign director Stephen Carter
He was the subject of a confidence vote on Friday and survived it, but he said Monday that over the course of the weekend, he learned some members planned to meet Monday evening in what he described as an effort to “subvert the democratic will” of the caucus.
“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.
Narth defended his caucus on Tuesday.
“I stand by each and every one of the MLAs who are here with me today and the morals that they represent,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Khan rebutted Narth’s claim of solidarity and morality within the party.
“I don’t think they’re pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes. You can’t preach unity when you stab your leader in the back,” he said. “It’s a sad day for politics in Manitoba.”
‘Leadership problems’
Khan became the party leader last year, after former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson stepped down in early 2024.
Political strategist Stephen Carter, who resigned last week from his role as campaign director for the Manitoba PCs after only nine months, believes Khan’s leadership style alienated him from the party and likely voters in the province.
“I think the policies [of the party] were being well-received, but the delivery of the policies was challenging,” Carter said in a Tuesday interview.
“His interactions with the people were challenged sometimes by his personality. He was a strong personality. Some days, you know, he was the most likeable guy on Earth, and other days he was not.”
Carter said he is personally on the progressive side of politics and was trying to pull the party in a direction that might appeal to liberal voters in Winnipeg, in hopes of building on the two seats it holds in the city.
Khan stood in the way of that, Carter said.
“I think that the leader created leadership problems. I don’t know that it was necessarily political problems,” he said.
“I left because I didn’t think that I had the opportunity to achieve the goal that I had set out for myself, which was to put the PCs back in government and to define a new Progressive Conservative Party.”
On Tuesday, Khan said he wishes Carter “nothing but the best” and agrees he stood in the way of Carter’s efforts to shift the party.
“I’m glad to hear that he said that some of the more liberal, left-leaning ideas I was against, and that I wanted to push more for conservatives … because I believe in those values,” Khan said.