Obby Khan is stepping down from his position as leader of Manitoba’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives, saying divisions within his caucus have left him “no choice” but to resign.
Khan made the announcement just after 5 p.m. CT Monday, after he survived what appears to be a symbolic confidence vote on Friday.
It’s not clear which member of the PC caucus triggered that vote, or for what reason.
Speaking to reporters at the legislature Monday evening, Khan said the votes in that confidence motion were two to one in his favour, but “a small group of MLAs have decided that those results are still not enough.”
“It has become clear to me that after Friday’s majority vote in my favour would not resolve the divisions within our caucus, it has left me no choice,” Khan said.
Under the PC Party’s constitution, a new leadership race can only be triggered at this point in the election cycle if the position becomes vacant, the leader ends up mentally or physically incapacitated, the leader requests a leadership race or a simple majority of PC members vote in favour of a race at a general meeting.
However, Khan said over the course of the weekend, he learned some members of the PC caucus planned to meet Monday evening in what he described as an effort to “subvert the democratic will” of the caucus.
Obby Khan announced late Monday afternoon that he is stepping down as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party, the province’s Official Opposition. He said he will also leave the party caucus to sit as an Independent MLA. Watch his full remarks here.
The decision to resign is “not [about] whether I could fight.… You all know me, I like to fight,” said Khan.
But “I will not spend the next chapter fighting with my own party, my own caucus, when I came here to fight the NDP … and to hold this government accountable,” he said.
Khan said he will resign from the PC caucus, effective Tuesday, but will continue on as the MLA for the Winnipeg constituency of Fort Whyte, sitting as an Independent.
“I cannot be a part of a caucus with a small minority membership that lacks moral integrity, that will not abide by our rules, our principles, our code,” he said.
Khan thanked some members of the 20-person PC caucus by name during his resignation speech, including former interim party leader Kelvin Goertzen, as well as MLAs Ron Schuler, Greg Nesbitt, Rick Wowchuk, Derek Johnson, Trevor King and Colleen Robbins.
‘Far bigger than me’
Khan became the party leader last year, after former Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson stepped down in early 2024.
He won the leadership in a tightly contested leadership race against Wally Daudrich, a Churchill hotel and ecotourism company owner who quit the party in June.
Khan, who was an entrepreneur and a former football player with the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers before entering politics, was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 2022, winning the Fort Whyte seat in Winnipeg in a byelection.
He became leader in a contest sparked by the resignation of Stefanson, who stepped down as party leader months after her PCs lost the fall 2023 provincial election to Wab Kinew’s NDP.
When elected to the role last year, Khan became the first Muslim, as well as the first Canadian from a South Asian ethnic background, to lead the party.
“For the first time in the party’s history, someone who looked like me, prayed like me, carried a family story like mine stood here as the party leader,” Khan said Monday, having to pause to collect himself as his voice cracked with emotion.
“That is far bigger than me.… Whatever happens after today remains history.”
Khan did not take questions from reporters after his nearly 20-minute speech at the legislature on Monday.
Manitoba’s legislature is slated to resume on Tuesday.
As of Monday, the Tories held 20 of the province’s 57 seats, including Khan’s. The governing NDP have 34, the Liberals hold one. There are two Independents as of Monday — Khan will become the third.
The next provincial election is not slated until October 2027.
Not a surprise: prof
Under Khan, the PCs have struggled to whittle away at the popularity of Wab Kinew’s NDP government. In a byelection last year, the Tories narrowly held on to the rural Manitoba Spruce Woods seat — a normally safe riding the party has held since 2011.
Christopher Adams, a political studies professor at the University of Manitoba, says he’s not surprised Khan stepped down, given the premier’s popularity and the NDP’s hold in the province.
“Political parties, when their caucus feels that they aren’t going to go anywhere, they are very quick to get rid of their leaders,” he said.
“I think MLAs are looking around saying, ‘Look, is our party going to survive? Am I going to survive in the seat that I hold if we continue on the trajectory that we have?'”
The announcement did come as a surprise to PC party president Peter Smith, who said Khan told him he’d learned a lot from the vote and discussion the caucus had Friday.
“It’s a tough position to be in, and I suppose at some point, he had discussions with the caucus and just determined that it wasn’t going to be productive moving forward,” Smith said.
“It’s a bump in the road for sure, but the message of the party is bigger than the leader, and we feel we have a good message.”
Khan’s time as Tory leader has also seen him butt heads with the NDP in the legislature, in particular with Kinew, in what Adams has previously described as “outright hostility” between the party leaders.
Last October, Khan apologized after making a gesture in question period that mimicked shooting himself in the head while Education Minister Tracy Schmidt was answering a question.
And earlier this year, the Speaker of the legislature ruled Khan had made “hateful” remarks when he called Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, who is non-binary, “a terrible person, whatever you are.”
The PC Party said as of Monday evening, it did not yet know who will be serving as interim Opposition leader.
In a two-line statement Monday evening, Tory deputy caucus chair Josh Guenter, the MLA for Borderlands, acknowledged that Khan had stepped down and will sit as an Independent.
The PC caucus will meet Tuesday morning and will “have more to share tomorrow,” Guenter’s statement said.
Daudrich said it’s a “good day” for the party.
“I think the party’s future has never been brighter since Duff Roblin took out a membership,” he said in an interview with CBC News on Monday evening, suggesting the party hasn’t had as great a vision for Manitoba since Roblin led the party in the 1960s.
In a post on social media Monday evening, former interim leader Goertzen thanked Khan for his work as leader.
“Leadership in politics is always challenging and comes with sacrifice,” including time away from family, wrote Goertzen, who has said he will not run for re-election in his Steinbach constituency.
He wished Khan “well in the time ahead,” and said he hopes “he has more time to make special memories with his son.”