Gregory Francis Selinger (born February 16, 1951) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 21st

premier of Manitoba The premier of Manitoba (french: premier ministre du Manitoba) is the first minister (i.e., head of government or chief executive) for the Canadian province of Manitoba—as well as the ''de facto'' President of the province's Executive Council ...

from 2009 until 2016, leading an NDP government. From 1999 to 2009 he was the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

in the government of his immediate predecessor,

Gary Doer Gary Albert Doer (born 31 March 1948) is a former Canadian politician and diplomat from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He served as Canada's ambassador to the United States from 19 October 2009, to 3 March 2016. Doer previously served as the 20th p ...

. Selinger was the member of the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gen ...

for

St. Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...

from 1999 until his resignation in early 2018. His party was defeated by

Brian Pallister Brian William Pallister (born July 6, 1954) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Manitoba from 2016 until 2021. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba from 2012 to 2021. He was previously a cab ...

and the Progressive Conservatives in the

2016 Manitoba general election The 2016 Manitoba general election was held on April 19, 2016 to elect members to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, Canada. The New Democratic Party of Manitoba, led by Greg Selinger, were defeated by the Progressive Conservative Party of Man ...

Early life and education

Selinger was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, the son of Margaret Eva (Crawford) and Nicodemus Selinger. He came to Manitoba from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

as a child with his single mother, who ran a small clothing store in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

. Selinger received a

Bachelor of Social Work A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

from Queen's University, and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

. Before entering politics, he worked as an associate professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, and sat on the boards of the St. Boniface Hospital, the St. Boniface Museum, the Community Income Tax Service Boards, and as president of the Old St. Boniface Residents Association.

Municipal politics

After joining an alliance of progressive municipal politicians called Winnipeg into the '90s in the late 1980s, Selinger was elected to the

Winnipeg City Council The Winnipeg City Council (french: Conseil municipal de Winnipeg) is the governing body of the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Council is seated in the Council Building of Winnipeg City Hall. as a candidate of the alliance in St. Boniface, defeating incumbent Guy Savoie. During his time as a city councillor, Selinger was a member of the Executive Policy Committee and was the chair of the Committee on Finance and Administration. In 1992, Selinger ran for Mayor of Winnipeg and came in second place, losing to

Susan Thompson Susan Ann Thompson was the 40th mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was born on 12 April 1947. She was the first woman to serve as mayor of Winnipeg, serving two terms from 1992 to 1998. Thompson graduated with a BA from the University of Winnip ...

. Some have attributed his loss to his refusal to accept

corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

and union donations, which he based on principle. The 1992 civic election had 17 nominated candidates running for Mayor which resulted in votes getting split amongst several candidates similarly aligned on the political spectrum.

Post municipal career

Following his failed mayoral bid, Selinger stepped back from politics and returned to teaching at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Manitoba legislature The Legislature of Manitoba is the legislature of the province of Manitoba, Canada. Today, the legislature is made of two elements: the King of Canada in Right of Manitoba, represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, and the unicameral ...

in the provincial election of 1999, defeating his closest opponent, Liberal Jean-Paul Boily, by 5439 votes to 2994 in the

riding of

. Selinger was appointed

, after the 1999 election, in Gary Doer's first cabinet, and was also given responsibility for French Language Services, the administration of the Crown Corporations Review and Accountability Act and the administration of the Manitoba Hydro Act. In his ten years as Minister of Finance, Selinger balanced every budget. On January 17, 2001, he was also given responsibility for the Civil Service. Following a cabinet shuffle on September 25, 2002, he was charged with the administration of the Liquor Control Act, while being relieved of his duties for the Manitoba Hydro Act. In 2003, Selinger supported

Bill Blaikie William Alexander Blaikie (June 19, 1951 – September 24, 2022) was a Canadian politician. He served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2008, representing Elmwood—Transcona and its antecedent ridings in the House of Commons of Canad ...

's campaign to lead the federal

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

. Selinger was re-elected in the provincial election of 2003 with almost 75% of the vote in his riding. On November 4, 2003, he was relieved of responsibilities for the Liquor Control Act; on October 12, 2004, he was made responsible for the Public Utilities Board. In January 2005, Selinger announced that his government would change its system of accounting for expenditures and revenues. This followed a request from

Auditor General An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations. Freq ...

Jon Singleton, who criticized the government for listing crown corporation losses and other matters as off-budget spending. Selinger is considered a strong performer in the Doer Cabinet. He was re-elected in the 2007 provincial election. On June 28, 2007, Selinger regained responsibility for the administration of the Liquor Control Act and was charged with the administration of The Manitoba Lotteries Corporation Act.

Premier

On September 8, 2009, Selinger resigned from his cabinet position and announced his candidacy for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba. He was running against fellow cabinet ministers

Steve Ashton ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

and

Andrew Swan Andrew James Swan (born August 9, 1968) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 2004 to 2019. He was first elected in a 2004 by-election, replacing MaryAnn Mihychuk, who resigned to run for ...

until Swan dropped out of the race on September 28. The

leadership convention {{Politics of Canada In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader. Overview In Canada, leaders of a party generally rem ...

took place on October 17, 2009. Rosann Wowchuk replaced Selinger as interim

. He defeated his leadership rival,

, taking 1,317 votes among delegates, to Ashton's 685. Selinger was sworn in as

Premier of Manitoba The premier of Manitoba (french: premier ministre du Manitoba) is the first minister (i.e., head of government or chief executive) for the Canadian province of Manitoba—as well as the ''de facto'' President of the province's Executive Council ...

by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba on October 19, 2009, the same day that Gary Doer was sworn in as

Canadian Ambassador to the United States This is a list of ambassadors of Canada to the United States, formally titled as ''Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America for Her isMajesty's Government in Canada''. Originally, Canada's top diplomatic represe ...

. Despite predictions of defeat, Selinger led the NDP to its fourth straight majority government in the October 2011 general election, surpassing Doer's record and winning 37 seats. In April 2013, the Selinger government reneged on an earlier promise to not increase sales taxes by implementing a 1% increase in the provincial sales tax rate from 7% to 8%, which resulted in a precipitous decline in popular support for the government and, ultimately, a

caucus revolt A caucus revolt occurs when enough members of a political party pressure its leadership to step down or to remove planned bills, legislation or policies from its platform. A caucus revolt generally concludes with the party leader resigning their ...

against Selinger's leadership culminating in the resignation of five cabinet ministers. Due, in part, to the unpopularity of the tax increase, the NDP fell far behind the Progressive Conservatives in public opinion polls and never recovered. In the fall of 2014 several cabinet ministers privately asked Selinger to resign in hopes that the party would recover under a new leader, but he declined. In September 2014, during a caucus retreat, several MLAs openly told Selinger he needed to resign but he refused. A month later, at the end of October Minister of Finance Jennifer Howard (Fort Rouge), Minister of Municipal Government Stan Struthers (Dauphin), Minister for Jobs and the Economy

Theresa Oswald Theresa Oswald is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 2003 to 2016 and a cabinet minister from 2004 until she stepped down in 2014 to unsuccessfully challenge ...

(Seine River),

(Minto), Minister of Health

Erin Selby Erin Selby is a politician and former TV personality in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Selby earned a bachelor's degree in communications studies from Concordia University. She previously co-hosted ''Breakfast Television'' on Citytv Winnipeg a ...

(Southdale), and several senior party officials went public with their call for Selinger's resignation. Selinger asked ministers, labeled the "gang of five" in the media, to either disavow their public statements or quit. The five resigned on Monday, November 3. The same day Selinger said in a statement he was saddened by their decisions but had made it clear they could either "focus on the priorities of Manitoba families as part of our team, or resign." Selinger accepted the resignations of the five senior cabinet ministers and installed their replacements hours later. On November 9, Selinger asked the party executive to hold a leadership election during the party's annual convention scheduled for March 6–8, 2015, stating his intention to be a candidate. The party executive subsequently agreed. Theresa Oswald, one of the five rebel ex-ministers, challenged Selinger for the leadership as did Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation

who had not protested against Selinger but who resigned from cabinet to enter leadership contest. At the March 8, 2015 leadership election, Ashton was eliminated on the first ballot and Selinger prevailed on the second ballot with 50.93% of ballots cast, defeating Oswald by 33 votes. Selinger's popularity never recovered after his party raised the PST in 2013. By the time the writs were dropped for the 2016 provincial election, the NDP had been well behind the Tories in opinion polling for almost four years. The NDP was heavily defeated, falling to only 14 seats, its smallest seat count in three decades.

After politics

Selinger resigned as party leader following his government's defeat and returned to the backbench. Selinger announced on February 20, 2018, that he was resigning his seat in the legislature effective March 7, 2018. He continues to live in Winnipeg.

Electoral record

References

External links

*
Official New Democratic Party profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selinger, Greg 1951 births Alumni of the London School of Economics Living people Finance ministers of Manitoba Manitoba CCF/NDP leaders Members of the Executive Council of Manitoba Premiers of Manitoba Queen's University at Kingston alumni University of Manitoba alumni Winnipeg city councillors Canadian social work academics Politicians from Regina, Saskatchewan 21st-century Canadian politicians New Democratic Party of Manitoba MLAs Members of the Order of Manitoba