Wall has plenty to gain from boring, two-way NDP leadership race
So far, the big winner in the Saskatchewan NDP’s leadership race appears to be Brad Wall.
Notwithstanding his government’s failings in budget and economic management of late, what Brad Wall and his Saskatchewan Party remain remarkably good at it is the political game — especially, defining NDP leaders before they get a chance to define themselves.
And should this next Saskatchewan NDP leadership contest remain a two-way tussle between Ryan Meili and Trent Wotherspoon, it will be the perfect scenario for Wall:
For the past six months, Wall has been busily portraying Meili — who remains the Sask. Party’s preferred choice for NDP leader — as too far left for mainstream Saskatchewan, because of issues like his support for resource revenue sharing with First Nations and the federal NDP Leap Manifesto. Enter interim leader Trent Wotherspoon into the race — a far greater challenge for the Sask. Party. However, Wotherspoon just did Wall and company a huge favour by now contemplating his leadership run after a year of repeatedly vowing not to run. This will allow Wall — and even some in the NDP — to portray Wotherspoon as either disingenuous all along or as an opportunist.
A race strictly between Meili (who ran for NDP leader in 2013 and 2009) and Wotherspoon (who ran in 2013) can be easily spun by Wall as not only a divisive one but one that has failed to attract fresh candidates — especially women and minorities.
Perhaps the Sask. Party members are not exactly ones to talk, given that the Wall 2004 forces ensured his own leadership win 13 years ago would be a coronation void of any debate.
But a lack of diversity and airing of ideas has been far more problematic for a party like the NDP, which needs such diversity to grow.
The 2013 contest between Cam Broten and Wotherspoon (on the right) and Meili and now Regina Lewvan MP Erin Weir (on the left) offered little diversity, but a lot of tribal philosophical division that has plagued this party to this day.
Similarly, the NDP’s 2009 leadership race seemed all about seeking revenge for losing to
Wall two years earlier. They would end up with Dwain Lingenfelter, and the rest is history.
Wall has been in power for nearly a decade. Whomever becomes the new interim leader will tie a Saskatchewan record for seventh permanent/interim Opposition leader (Lorne Calvert, Len Taylor, Lingenfelter, John Nilson, Broten and Wotherspoon) faced by any single premier. (Roy Romanow faced Grant Devine, Rick Swenson, Bill Boyd, Lynda Haverstock, Ron Osika, Ken Krawetz and Elwin Hermanson, representing three different parties.)
What this should tell New Democrats is political upheaval in Saskatchewan during this past decade has almost exclusively been in the ranks of the province’s once “natural governing party.”
And it should also inspire the NDP to now do what they’ve rarely done — engage in a thorough, meaningful, diverse leadership process.
Including Deb Higgins in 2009 and Nettie Wiebe and Joanne Crofford in 2001, only three women have ever run for the Saskatchewan NDP leadership. In a caucus half made up of women, it would be a crying shame not to see at least one woman caucus member (especially either Carla Beck or Nicole Sarauer) in this race. Similar, Buckley Belanger in 2001 is the only person of aboriginal descent to run for NDP leader.
But even more importantly, if the NDP is to be seen as a viable choice next election rather than a blip in the polls now, it needs a thorough airing of all their ideas that pass the test of practical application. A leadership race is the place to do this.
For example, if Meili and others in the party do believe in the viability of First Nations revenue sharing, now would be the exact right time to make the case for auditor-like checks and balances to ensure money isn’t frittered away, or demonstrate how this would be a better way to deliver health and social programs.
But if this is just going to be an uninspired, two-way, left-right NDP leadership fight, the winner will be Wall.