Steve Ashton, the longest serving MLA in the Manitoba legislature, resigned Sept. 4 from the provincial cabinet as minister of intergovernmental affairs and minister responsible for emergency measures to run for the leadership of the provincial NDP and premiership.
Conservation Minister Stan Struthers has been named acting minister of intergovernmental affairs and minister responsible for emergency measures.
Ashton made the announcement of his candidacy for the province's top job in Winnipeg at the Union Centre on Broadway shortly after noon Friday.
In his regular weekly "MLA Report" column that appeared in last Friday's Nickel Belt News, Ashton wrote, "Over the next few weeks we will be selecting a new NDP leader and premier for the province.
"It will be an opportunity for us to put forward our vision for the future of the province.
"I believe it is important to have a premier that has a proven track record. I believe that a premier has to work hard to bring people together. It is particularly important to represent all Manitobans.
"It is also important that a premier has a clear vision for the future of the province and that he or she be prepared to take a stand on critical issues.
Over the past few days I have had numerous people encourage me to run for leader and premier In the 97 years that Northern Manitoba has been part of this province there has never been a Northern premier. The fact is that as Northerners we bring a unique perspective to this province."
Ashton, a native of Surrey in England, came to Canada at the age of 11 with his family. His dad was unemployed, he noted in April 2008, when they arrived in Toronto in 1967, and the moved the same year to Thompson. Ashton has observed his family would never be admitted into the country under the current point system or proposed immigration changes.
Ashton, 53, is a leap-year baby, born Feb. 29, 1956. A graduate of R.D. Parker Collegiate in Thompson and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, he received his M. A. in economics from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and is an economist. He was president of the University of Manitoba Students Union in 1978-79 and has lectured in economics for the former Inter Universities North in Thompson and Cross Lake.
At the age of 25, Ashton was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the Nov. 17, 1981 provincial election for the NDP in the Thompson riding, defeating one-term Progressive Conservative incumbent Ken MacMaster, 47, elected in 1977, by 72 votes. Ashton garnered 2,890 votes to MacMaster's 2,818. Liberal Cy Hennessey finished dead last with 138 votes. At the time of his first election, Ashton was involved in an Inco strike as a member of Local 6166 of the Steelworkers.
In November 2006, looking back at having served 25 years as Thompson's NDP MLA, Ashton noted, "What matters is getting results," he said, pointing to former Premier Ed Schreyer and Joe Borowski as two people he looked to for inspiration.
Borowski, Thompson's first MLA when the new provincial riding came into existence in June 1969, defeated Mayor Tim Johnston's father, Dr. Blain Johnston, by seven votes in the Feb. 20, 1969 byelection in the old provincial riding of Churchill. He went on four months later to win the newly created riding in the June 25, 1969 general election.
Ashton did not serve in the cabinet of Howard Pawley for the seven years he led the NDP in Manitoba as premier from 1981 to 1988, but easily won re-election in 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007.
The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1988 and Ashton served for a time as house Leader for the NDP in opposition. He served as labour critic, health critic and led the fight against the privatization of MTS in 1997.
When NDP leader Gary Doer became premier in October 1999, Ashton was appointed as minister of highways and government services. Following a cabinet shuffle in September 2002, Ashton became minister of conservation. In June 2003, he was also made minister of labour and immigration with responsibility for multiculturalism and administration of the Workers Compensation Act.
In November 2003, he was named as the province's first minister of water stewardship and in 2007 was shuffled to the post of minister of intergovernmental affairs and minister responsible for emergency measures.
Ashton's wife, Hari Dimitrakopoulou-Ashton, is also an economist and university lecturer in economics, management, and women's studies, who authored Women Entrepreneurs in the North. She moved to Thompson with him in December 1979. Steve Ashton is the chair of the Canadian Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, seeking the return of the sculptures from Britain to Greece. He's a delegate to the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, speaks Greek and has written on the political culture of Greece.
