Former Minister for Indigenous and Municipal Relations opens up about decision to resign

A month before Premier Brian Pallister indicated his decision to step down as leader of the provincial Progressive Conservative party, Eileen Clarke, Minister for Indigenous and Municipal Relations, announced she was stepping away from her cabinet position. She remains MLA for Agassiz, a constituency which includes Neepawa and the surrounding area.

For the first time since her resignation, Clarke sat down and opened up to Lyle Watson about the factors that led to that decision and what’s in store for her going forward.

Clarke was very candid about her frustrations with the party leadership and encountering barriers to her work, a difficulty she indicated was shared with other members of her party. She stated that although it was hard work, she never thought of her job as “tough”--a word used by Pallister in reference to her cabinet position---and that working with Indigenous communities was something that she loved and now misses. What was tough was the disrespect she felt was being directed from the party leadership toward the people she was serving.

She also felt frustrated by a series of bills that, as a member of the PC caucus, she was expected to support but that she knew were unpopular with her constituents. Among these was Bill 64, an education reform bill that proposed to, among other things, abolish the English-speaking rural school boards. Beautiful Plains School Division, which serves Neepawa, Carberry, and the surrounding area, was one of the many organisations across the province that publicly spoke out against the bill.

Bill 64 was among those rescinded when Premier Goertzen took office on September 1.

Clarke went on to say that while she had been thinking about resigning for some time, the decision to go ahead wasn’t made until that same day. “The moment I had done it I felt a huge sense of relief, because I was getting to the point I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror and feel good about what I was doing. I wasn’t being true to myself. I wasn’t being true to the people I was representing.”

Following her resignation, Clarke said she received letters of support from across the country. Moving forward, the PC Party will be choosing a new leader, who will serve as Premier of Manitoba, on October 30. Clarke said she is a lot more hopeful about the government now than she was two months ago and feels a renewed drive to continue her work.

“I don’t need a title of a minister to do good work within our government,” said Clarke. “There is still a lot of good work that I can do in regards to Reconciliation … in regards to respect for all people, and truth.”