Meili’s attempt to dial down political rhetoric may not last long

For at least one brief, shining moment Monday, the Saskatchewan legislature was as many imagined it should be.

In an attempt to set a very different tone in the ever-rowdy Saskatchewan legislature, new Opposition Leader Ryan Meili’s first question to new Premier Scott Moe was: “What points of agreement does he see across the aisle?”

“My caucus colleagues and I stand ready and committed to serve the people of Saskatchewan, what are the issues where the premier sees us finding common ground?” Meili asked.

Seemingly caught off-guard by being whacked over the head with an olive branch, Moe responded there were “numerous places where we could work with the Opposition”, including “the budgetary constraints that we have as we look forward.” (One doubts the NDP and the Saskatchewan Party will find consensus on budget cuts.)

That said, Moe then cited the general agreement that the books do need to be balanced for future generations, and further mentioned the “issue with a fentanyl overdose this past weekend in the city of Saskatoon” plus other issues of mental health and drug and alcohol addiction as the “sources of those crimes.”

Maybe it wasn’t exactly a “fulsome” (as Moe is fond of saying) commitment to consensus politics, but it seemed a start. Will it last or grow into something ? Time will tell.

Meili’s next question was on Saskatchewan’s February job numbers, showing 7,800 fewer working people than a year earlier, compared with 46,000 new jobs in NDP-run Alberta. Moe responded that “over the past decade, Mr. Speaker, in this province we were up 62,000 jobs.”

Job creation shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but that hasn’t stopped Saskatchewan oppositions of all stripes from beating up their government rival with the numbers come election time. It shows how everything in politics quickly becomes partisan.

The remainder of Monday’s question period followed old partisan trails with issues like education funding, social services provided for children and, of course, the Global Transportation Hub. At the very least, it proved old habits are hard to break and that being partisan in the legislative chamber always seems the natural course.

Nevertheless, the fact that the NDP didn’t start Monday’s QP with yet another unproductive and repetitious GTH question seems a step forward. So does the fact that we didn’t hear the usual desk-thumping and heckles. Let’s also note that neither Meili nor Moe have been the desk-thumping, heckling type.

But questions remain: How long can we realistically expect this outbreak of better behaviour to last? Do we even want better behaviour?

It seems undeniable that North America is going through a crisis of intense partisanship right now, centred on U.S. President Donald Trump’s divisiveness and driven by the absolute viciousness on social media and private talk radio.

It is truly everywhere, and it was hard not to note that at the very moment Meili and Moe were seeking consensus, former Sask. Party premier Brad Wall was one province away hammering at NDP governments in B.C. and Alberta and the federal Liberal government’s carbon tax.

However, lest we forget Saskatchewan has, historically, always been the epicentre of such political divisions. As the first North American jurisdiction with a social democratic government, changes like public health care and the first Human Rights Commission or instituting government-run resource companies did not happen quietly.

Nor was there peace and harmony regarding the Conservative government’s privatization of government-owned resource companies. And no government needing to balance the budgets via closing hospitals or selling off the Crown-owned bus company did so in silence. Somehow, we survived it all.

So let us all agree that reining in some of the nonsense in Saskatchewan politics is a good thing. It is an especially good strategy for an Opposition leader like Meili to demonstrate reasonableness and compromise.

But how far consensus politics can go in Saskatchewan remains to be seen.

How far anyone wants it to go may be the bigger question.