Kathy Cox, a former cabinet minister, has joined the growing list of Manitoba Progressive Conservatives who will not be on the ballot in the 2023 provincial election.
The representative for Kildonan-River East in Winnipeg said in a statement Thursday that he will not seek re-election.
First elected in 2016, Cox spent her first year in government as Minister for Sustainable Development.
She later led the Ministry of Sport, Culture and Heritage and was Minister for the Status of Women until early 2022, when she was ousted from Cabinet.
In his statement, Cox said serving his constituents “has been the honor of a lifetime,” but it’s time to step back from public life and enjoy more precious moments with family and friends.
“Only God can predict our future. Life is short and there are no guarantees in this world,” she wrote.
She and her husband have three grown sons who are “now chasing their dreams with their families,” with their middle son getting married later this year.
Cox expressed her gratitude to former Prime Minister Brian Pallister for his confidence in her, but did not mention current Prime Minister Heather Stefanson.
Pallister appointed Cox to the cabinet and Stefanson pulled her out of the shuffle room in January 2022, two months after becoming Prime Minister following Pallister’s resignation.
“As I look back on those nearly seven, sometimes tumultuous years in government, what is most memorable are the many remarkable Manitobans I was privileged to meet,” Cox wrote.
She said her work as an MLA for her riding would remain a priority ahead of the next election scheduled to be held on or before October 3 this year.
“To my family, friends, political aides, and the many volunteers who have supported and stood by me during my time in politics, I extend my deepest and most sincere gratitude,” Cox wrote.
Her departure means more than a quarter of the party’s MLAs who were in the party’s caucus a year ago – 10 of the Tories’ 36 members – will not run in the next provincial election.
Former Kirkfield Park MLA Scott Fielding resigned in June, while Eileen Clark (Agassiz), Cliff Cullen (Spruce Woods), Myrna Dreiger (Roblin), Ralph Eichler (Lakeside), Alan Lagimodier (Selkirk), Blaine Pedersen (Midland), Dennis Smook (La Verendrye) and Ian Wishart (Portage la Prairie) said they will not seek another term in the Manitoba legislature.
Lagimodiere retires for family reasons
In an interview Thursday, Lajimodière said he would have run for re-election in the fall if not for the failing health of a family member.
He said a family member has scleroderma, a chronic autoimmune disease in which a person’s immune system turns on itself. There is no treatment.
“It’s easy to decide on that [to leave politics]but at the same time you feel like you’re kind of abandoning the residents who trust you,” said the Selkirk MLA, who was first elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2019.
“It was hard.”
Lagimodiere, who is currently Manitoba’s Indigenous Reconciliation minister, said he was heartened by the people who wished him well and were disappointed to lose him as an elected official.
Alan Lagimodiere said he would seek re-election but instead is stepping down due to serious health issues for a family member. (Gary Solilak/CBC)
Lagimodiere said turnover among Tory members did not worry him. People come and go from any job for a number of reasons and the Progressive Conservative Party is no different, he said.
He said he was excited about the future of the party and was already receiving calls from “very prominent and very talented individuals” who would like to succeed him as MLA for Selkirk.
“It’s exciting to see all these people come forward and say, ‘If you can’t do it, I want to replace you,'” Lagimodière said.
A potential replacement has come forward in the Spruce Woods constituency, less than a week after Deputy Premier Cliff Cullen announced he would not stand again to represent the constituency.
Grant Jackson, a special adviser to the Prime Minister’s office, has taken unpaid leave to pursue the PC Party nomination in the Tory stronghold.
He previously spent several years as a parliamentary assistant to Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire.
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