{"id":913958,"date":"2026-09-29T10:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913958\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:42:11","slug":"manitoba-legislature-resumes-with-opposition-pcs-scrambling-to-pick-new-caucus-leader-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913958\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba legislature resumes with Opposition PCs scrambling to pick new caucus leader \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG \u2013 Manitoba\u2019s legislature resumes sitting today, with the Opposition Progressive Conservatives in the unusual position of looking for a leader.<\/p>\n

The Tory caucus says it will meet this morning to select an interim leader to replace Obby Khan.<\/p>\n

Khan resigned suddenly on Monday, saying not only is he leaving the job effective today, he is also quitting the PC caucus and will sit as an Independent.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tObby Khan speaks to reporters after being sworn-in as a member of the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg, Monday, April 4, 2022. Khan won a byelection in the Fort Whyte constituency in Winnipeg on March 22. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Steve Lambert<\/p>\n

Khan cited internal party feuding and efforts to undermine his leadership as the reason for his decision.<\/p>\n

The move leaves the Tories with 19 seats in the house, compared with 34 for Premier Wab Kinew\u2019s NDP, one Liberal and, with Khan, now three Independents.<\/p>\n

The next scheduled provincial general election is still over a year away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not surprised on reflection that this has happened, but it is a very sad day for the PC party and it\u2019s a sad day for Obby Khan,\u201d Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Manitoba, said Monday.<\/p>\n

Adams said cascading events \u2014 from Kinew\u2019s polling popularity to the Tories\u2019 declining popularity in Winnipeg \u2014 make the move understandable. He said Khan likely had no choice but to step down, as the party isn\u2019t likely to win the next election, set for October 2027.<\/p>\n

To turn things around, Adams said the PCs need to win back suburban Winnipeg. He suggested the party name a leader who could appeal to urban voters, citing Winnipeg city councillor Janice Lukes or federal Conservative MP James Bezan as examples.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he thought Kinew would call a snap provincial election, he said the premier would likely wait, given municipal elections set for this fall and the harsh dead of winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thinking is it\u2019s high probability they\u2019ll just wait out till (next) fall,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2013 Manitoba\u2019s legislature resumes sitting today, with the Opposition Progressive Conservatives in the unusual position of looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-913958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}