Premier Selinger’s government gets more than enough attention throughout the year.

So let’s take a moment to reflect on Manitoba’s official opposition and the man who wants to be premier – Brian Pallister.

Mr. Pallister took over as Progressive Conservative (PC) leader in July of 2012. Shortly after, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a donation-based taxpayers watchdog organization, authored a column putting forward advice on what we thought Mr. Pallister needed to do as leader.

We suggested the first order of business for Mr. Pallister was to develop a set of principles as to what his party stood for. After all, nothing on his party’s web site clearly articulated this. Further, for a decade leading up to the 2011 election, the PCs (rightfully so) criticized the NDP government as “spending like a bunch of drunken sailors.”

Yet, during the 2011 election the PCs seemed to match the NDP in new spending announcements even though the provincial government’s debt was skyrocketing. Thus, we recommended Mr. Pallister embed fiscal responsibility among its key principles going forward. Manitobans needed a fiscally responsible alternative to the NDP.

Thankfully, in early 2013, Mr. Pallister’s party posted a new set of principles on its website; noting they believe in being “fiscally prudent,” “personal responsibility” and “freedom.” Refreshing words, let’s hope his party sticks to such ideas going forward.

We also suggested in 2012 that Mr. Pallister take a page out of Wayne Gretzky’s playbook and follow his well known advice – “go to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” In other words, think about the direction the province is going in and address the problems on the horizon.

One concern we highlighted was our provincial government’s unsustainable growth in debt. During the summer of 2013, the CTF brought its giant debt clock to the legislature to draw attention to this issue. We were delighted that Progressive Conservative MLA Myrna Driedger joined the CTF for the press conference as did Liberal leader Jon Gerrard. At the press conference, and since that time, Mr. Pallister and his team have raised concerns about the province’s mounting debt problem.

Back in 2012 we also suggested Mr. Pallister and his party not just criticize the government, but to put out concrete ideas on how they would fix problems without simply throwing money at them.

His party has improved in this area; they even put out their best proposal in five years on April 18, 2013. In it, the PCs suggested a number of ways his party would cut spending rather than hike the provincial government’s PST. They suggested things like cutting wasteful advertising, introducing better tender practices and cutting back on people employed to spread government propaganda.

So where does Mr. Pallister’s party need to improve most? Perhaps more than anything, we need to see more constructive ideas like the ones they put forward on April 18, 2013. More of the criticisms they throw at the government need to be accompanied by solutions for addressing the issues our province faces. There's more than enough money in the system, how would they reform various services?

One thing is clear, Mr. Pallister’s party has improved from a year and a half ago, but there’s more work to do.

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