A good man, but not all conservative

In 1929, conservative icon Calvin Coolidge became the last man to leave the White House when he could have stayed, not contesting the easily winnable 1928 election because “it is a pretty good idea to get out when they still want you.” Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall seems to have made the same decision. But is he also a conservative icon?

On the face of it, yes. He took over a struggling conservative movement in his home province, ended an NDP dynasty, won three consecutive majorities and supposedly brought order out of budgetary chaos. He’s also very personable, married for 26 years to his college sweetheart and the father of a budding country singer. What’s not to love?

Well, trust me to find something. Specifically his not very conservative record. Broadly speaking conservatives believe in free market economics, public safety and traditional social values. And to be fair to Wall, “rightwing” politicians frequently surrender pre- emptively on social conservatism or reject it on principle, talk a good but empty game on public safety, and flee to the common safe high ground of market economics and the hummock of fiscal discipline. So the bar is set low here … unless you aspire to Coolidge comparisons.

On traditional social values Wall simply hasn’t been in the game. Never mind abortion or traditional marriage. He didn’t try to reform Saskatchewan’s bloated dysfunctional welfare system. His latest budget made grumpy noises about cutting $ 11 million from a $ 1.125 billion social assistance budget and it was considered a striking departure. As to public safety, at a national level the key issue is defence, which obviously isn’t important provincially. But Saskatchewan has led all Canadian provinces in crime rates throughout Wall’s tenure and he hasn’t made a significant effort to tackle it, let alone successfully. Of course crime is a difficult problem with complex roots. But having a plausible excuse for lack of results isn’t exactly statesmanship.

What about economics, the place where conservatives advance, or to which they retreat, when the going gets tough or just gets going? We’re talking deregulation here … or at least balanced budgets, tax simplification and spending restraint. Or not. Because while Wall has for years been hailed as a shining conservative fiscal light, even a potential federal leader, his actual budgetary performance has been kind of lousy. He inher- ited a surplus, went into the red, got back to balance, then plunged into deficits spiking above 10 per cent of spending. And while resource revenue did fluctuate ( see “plausible excuse” above), Wall had mediocre tax policies while spending leapt onto a Saskatchewan Party horse and galloped madly off.

When he became premier spending was under $10 billion a year. In his last budget it was nearly $ 15 billion. In short, he bought votes. If that’s fiscal conservatism, I’m a cactus. It also casts a bit of a pall on his otherwise attractive decision to reject a lifetime in politics in favour of, say, the sort of disquietingly lucrative private- sector career that awaits ex-politicians in our over-governed country. Especially as his last budget made halting efforts at restraint, his popularity plummeted and he bolted.

As The Economist commented about government budgets back in 1991, “The man who gives out free drinks at a party is usually more popular than the caretaker who clears up the mess...” And it is not true conservatism to be the free drinks guy then scurry off when a cold dawn starts to break.

Especially if you’ve got nothing else. On economics he doesn’t. His main policy asset was that his neighbours were even worse. He was highly interventionist from foreign investment to Crown corporations. And the C.D. Howe Institute recently warned of an unfunded $ 79 billion health-care liability in Saskatchewan, not unusual in Canada but also not praiseworthy. Essentially he had no philosophical agenda, just a partisan one.

He did sometimes stand up against federal encroachment on provincial jurisdiction, from health care to carbon taxes. But he caved on health care, where he never challenged central planning. And his own climate change plan is, awkwardly, less marketdriven than Justin Trudeau’s.

Some people would point to his record and say, see, it proves that to win in Canada conservatives have to be liberals. Which I find unappealing because I’ve never thought winning was everything. And there are lots of principled liberals willing to win and govern as liberals if you go do something useful and sincere instead.

Especially as conservatives also value character, or claim to. Wall is not just likable, he’s virtually scandal- free. But people with real character and conservative beliefs don’t do the opposite of what they believe in to win. Brad Wall was not a bad premier and seems to be a good man. But he was no Calvin Coolidge. Which is what we really need today.