Another day, another party leader standing at a port-a-podium in front of a majestic building on a tree-lined campus in Brandon. Yesterday it was PC Party boss Brian Pallister at Brandon University. Today it was NDP leader Greg Selinger at Assiniboine Community College’s North Hill campus. Now I’ve known Selinger since the ’90s, when I was working for the Winnipeg Sun out of its city hall bureau and he was a left-leaning activist city councillor for St. Boniface. We also ran into each other later on when I was working at the Legislature for the Tories. And after my return to journalism, we have developed what I believe is a mutual respect for each other. That despite our political DNA being at odds. Despite him being the most unpopular premier in Canada, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll, and his party struggling to hold on to power after almost 17 years, I really kinda like the guy. For a policy wonk who faced an embarrassing cabinet revolt last year, he’s always friendly and easy to talk to. However, I’ve never been behind the closed caucus/cabinet doors when his temper flares. So there he is. On a warm spring morning, flanked by a couple of local NDP candidates and Brandon City Coun. Lonnie Patterson (South Centre). Now city councilor’s outright endorsing candidates in the provincial election to me is in bad taste, but that’s a column for another day. The NDP press release in my hand stated that the party is “committing to invest in two new soccer pitches at Assiniboine Community College.” It will also also partner with the city to build additional new fields based on the results of the ongoing municipal feasibility study. All great and good and certainly projects that are desperately needed as the Optimist Park pitches have been flooded out beyond repair and the city’s growing soccer community is forced to play wherever it can find a piece of semi-sodded flat ground. After reading his statement, Selinger went off-script. “There is a difference in this election,” Selinger said. “We are offering policy choices at a time when you need to have a clear focus on what needs to be done.” Regarding education, Selinger accused the PC Party of not committing to a new school in Brandon, or core funding for universities, or to keep tuition fees at the rate of inflation. The Tories have repeatedly stated that they can’t make any full funding promises on projects until they get a good look at the NDP’s financials. Pallister stated as much yesterday at BU: “We have to get our province’s fiscal situation under control. The NDP has lost control of its spending,” Pallister said. “The debt hole that we’re going to inherit is enormous. The question is how deep is it? We won’t know that until we get into government because the NDP is the most secretive government in Canada. It hides information It blacks out reports. “It makes it hard to predict how bad the situation really is.” So I put that question to Selinger. “It’s an excuse James, as you know, you’ve been around for a while,” Selinger said, much to my amusement. “Every year, the auditor general puts out a statement of the finances of the Province of Manitoba. We put out a very robust fiscal outlook just before the election that should show where we’re going in terms of managing deficits and growing the economy.” Selinger then stated that the province still hasn’t fully recovered from the 2007/08 recession, though Manitoba has fared better than others. Selinger stated that economic growth is key both in Manitoba and Canada “in order to sustain the services that Manitobans expect in health care and education.” So the validity of all the promises the NDP is making will be tied to economic growth? Selinger said his infrastructure projects and education policies create jobs and trained workers to help stimulate the economy. “Everything depends on growing the economy, but you have to focus on growing the economy to have the economy grow. You can’t just assume it’s going to do better. It actually will do worse, unless you’re focussed on it.” OK. So let’s focus on some numbers for a minute. The province’s third-quarter financial update for 2015 shows Manitoba's summary deficit stands at $773 million. That’s up from $351 million that was forecasted. The province's economic growth has slowed to 2% from 2.5%. And tax revenue has declined by $148 million. And we are one of the most heavily taxed provinces in Canada. Then there’s that greased pig of a promise to balance the books. Years ago — was it the last election? — the NDP promised to balance the books by by 2014/15. But that date has slipped back three times. The new target is now 2020. That’s why the Tories say they can’t make any grandiose promises until they get a real close look at the NDP’s fiscal fiasco. That’s why Selinger gets a little testy when asked about it. Yes, Greg, I’ve been around for a long time. That’s why in the last election in 2011 then Tory leader Hugh McFadyen also stated he couldn’t make any formal cash commitments until he had a look at the NDP’s books. And shortly thereafter, under the re-elected NDP, deficits started ballooning and the promise to balance the budget started to drift way.

Brian Pallister returned to his alma mater today with a promise to more than double the current amount of money available for post-secondary students. Standing in front of historic Clark Hall at Brandon University, the Progressive Conservative leader said barriers that students face have grown under the NDP government, largely through extra taxation that prevent families from saving money for their children’s education. “These schools are where we unlock the potential with our young people … to find all the things they can do for others in their lives and so they can support themselves,” he said while surrounded by Tory candidates from Brandon and Westman. “We have to make it more likely that young people from all over our province, from every region, are able to reach out and find their potential.” The PC Party pledges it will increase funding for scholarships and bursaries and partner with private-sector donors to more than double the current amount of money available for students. Pallister said in a release a new Progressive Conservative government will raise total funding available to over $20 million by increasing the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative fund to $6.75 million, with a one-third matching component from government to allow for more private donors. It will also work with post-secondary advisory councils and industry to promote scholarship and bursary programs with strong labour market outcomes and employability potential. In a media scrum, I asked Pallister why, out of the myriad of potential funding schemes, the Tories came up with this plan. “Great question,” Pallister said (of course it was). “We met with each of our post-secondary institutions in the province … and the suggestion is there is money (in the private sector) waiting to be donated to assist young people in getting to a post-secondary institution. There has been a matching program, but it hasn’t increased under the NDP in 17 years.” Now I’m not covering all of the announcements being made by the three main parties. But I do take notice when a party leader comes to Brandon. However, I have to know who’s in town and what they’re up to. When this website started around the same time the writ was dropped, I reached out to the three main parties — along with dozens of other companies, groups, and organizations — to be added to their media mailing lists. The Tories and Liberals did so immediately. Despite repeated requests to the party’s HQ — and a direct appeal to Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell — I am still not receiving any Dipper diatribes. So in an attempt to be fair and balanced, I will reprint a post-secondary funding announcement from March 21 that I sourced from their website that mentions the Scholarship and Bursary Initiative. The NDP says it will will address the scholarship issue by doubling the $4.5-million Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary Initiative to $9 million. Since universities can match this fund with private donations, doubling the fund can leverage up to $18 million for students. Now as I’ve said before, election promises sometimes aren’t really worth the paper they’re printed on. And each party will find different ways to make it sound as if they are the champions of whatever sector is being addressed in the announcement du jour. So, one conclusion I can draw from all this, is the NDP is looking to address an issue the Tories claim they haven’t touched while they’ve been in office since 1999. And both promises are kinda close on the surface. But again, it really comes down to who are you going to believe will deliver. It’s all about trust, people. After the media event today, I walked and talked a bit with Pallister on the way back to his campaign SUV (no more motorcoaches these days for the leaders’ tours). He said when he attended BU, he relied on financial aid to get him through. It all comes down to who you can trust to deliver.

Fans attending Brandon Wheat Kings games this season have become accustomed to seeing Sunny N Sizzle walking around Westman Communications Group Place. Today on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sunny.sizzle.5) they have announced that Sunny N Sizzle are officially retiring until further notice. Don't fret Wheat King fans as they said they still plan to attend the games, just under different aliases. The duo proved to be a good luck charm to the Wheat Kings as they went 15-1-1 when Sunny N Sizzle were in the building. While they came up with the idea themselves, Westman residents loudly cheered them on, and they were quickly adopted as the unofficial mascot for Smitty's Lucky 7 Breakfast promotion. The idea for Sunny N Sizzle actually started last year over a denver sandwich one morning at a local eatery, so now one has to wonder what they have in mind for this years playoff run. You can find out for yourself at this Friday's home playoff game.  

Thank-you for visiting www.bdnmb.ca. We are now live and have many features for you to check out.  We have both a classified and a business directory page where you can sell your items or list your business respectively.  We will also be featuring blogs and stories from twelve very talented and dedicated columnists who have worked with www.bdnmb.ca from day one to make this project a total success. This has been about 5 or 6 months in the planning and we are pleased with the progress to date and will continue to add content and features as time passes.  We have many ideas and projects that we plan to implement on this website in the coming weeks and months. With any new business startup we are expecting a few issues so be patient as we will get through the errors to make this your central hub for information relating to Brandon. [youtubeHD=qn88iwgfCfA]