Glover says Manitoba PC leadership rival should apologize for accusation of threat to purge MLAs

Manitoba Progressive Conservative Partyleadership candidate Shelly Glover is calling on her rival, Heather Stefanson, to apologize for claiming Glover hasthreatened a purge of members of the PC caucus.

Stefanson alleged earlier this week thatGlover has threatened to fire sitting MLAs or run candidates against them at future nomination meetings.

Whichever of the two candidates wins the provincial party leadership will also become Manitoba's next premier, replacing Brian Pallister, who announced in August that he was stepping down.

"I think if she ends up being our premier, how does she get along with all the caucus colleagues that she's told actually she's going to run someone against them in their nominations, that she's going to fire them?"Stefanson said Tuesday.

She made the claim following acandidates' forum that night at the Norwood Hotel in Winnipeg.

Stefanson did not say when or where Glover made this statement and refused to name the MLAs in question.

Glover called the claim "an outrageous lie" on Tuesday night and went on to request an apology from Stefanson.

"I'm actually very disappointed in Heather," Glover said the following dayin an interview from the rural municipality of Dufferin.

"I hope she apologizes and we can continue on this leadership journey together. But you can't be telling lies. You just can't be telling lies."

More than two-thirds of the existing PC caucus has endorsed Stefanson's leadership campaign. Shehas served as the PC MLA for Tuxedo since 2000 and held cabinet positions in Pallister's governments.

Stefanson's campaign insists the former health minister was accurate in her statement about Glover, a retired police officer and former Conservative member of Parliament.

"We have had MLAs say constituents have told them that [Shelly] has said she will run open nominations in many of the ridings, and they can't understand how or why she could or would do that," Stefanson's campaign said in a statement.

PC membership sales extended

The tension in the race comes as thetwo candidates have just one more day to sell party memberships as part of the leadership race.

The original deadline of Sept. 30 has been extended to Oct. 1 to avoid interference with Thursday's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, party spokesperson Keith Stewart said.

The party may require the weekend to process and verify the new memberships and compile sales totals for Glover and Stefanson, Stewart said.

Party members will be eligible to fill out a mail-in ballot that will determine the new leader, who will be chosen on Oct. 30.