Premiers need unity to do big things: Kinew
18:43Premier Wab Kinew says ‘stop listening to naysayers’ think big
As the 13 premiers meet in Ottawa today, Manitoba’s Premier, Wab Kinew, weighs in on tensions between the leaders and on why Churchill deserves truckloads of money to beef up its port.
Hi there, I’m Padraig Moran and I work at The Current on CBC Radio. On Wednesday, we spoke to Kinew, who said that premiers “don’t have to agree on everything in order to do the big things together.”
“We can still have differences of opinion or debates, arguments even on certain topics, while still being resolute in our commitment to stay united for Canadian freedom and independence,” Kinew said.
That includes working together to help the average Canadian “deal with the cost of living, the price of groceries and all the other economic pressures that people face,” he added.
Kinew recently disagreed publicly with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has threatened to pull Crown Royal whisky off the province’s liquor store shelves. Parent company Diageo is closing a bottling plant in Ontario, and the whisky is distilled in Manitoba.
Ultimately, Kinew said that premiers advocating for their own priorities also have to work together for the bigger picture — like a hockey team.
“You take a kid from the Rockies, a kid from the Prairies, a kid from Quebec, a kid from Ontario, kid from the West Coast, kid from the North … put them together and then they go win an Olympic medal on the ice hockey sheet, right?” he said.
