Throne speech put at least one person to sleep
Saskatchewan politics is filled with random events not making any headlines. Political reporter D.C. Fraser shares some of those stories.
LONG SPEECHES LEAD TO SLEEPERS
Saskatchewan MLAS returned this week, marked by the throne speech outlining the government’s plan going forward. The speech this year was very long.
Written out, it was 20 pages, double the length of the speech in 2016. The farther you go back in history, it seems the shorter the speeches get. This year’s throne speech also included a ton of numbers and very few surprises.
At least one person on the floor of legislature was napping through half of it. Students, brought by their teacher to witness the big day, resorted to braiding hair, making funny faces or slouching in their chairs to pass time.
It’s guaranteed there were some adults in the room wishing they could do the same.
GUNS, GUNS, GUNS
Over the course of two weeks, there were two gun salutes outside the Saskatchewan Legislative Building.
Two weeks ago, the Governor General of Canada’s official welcome was marked by a 21-gun salute and inspection of the 100-man (people!) Honour Guard.
Throne speech day came with a 15-gun salute and an inspection of the Honour Guard by the Lieutenant-governor of Saskatchewan.
I’ve come up empty in cursory looks of when this has happened before. I don’t see another gun salute taking place this week, but maybe the Queen will drop in for a surprise visit ...
NDP TO USE MORE ‘VALIDATORS’?
Opposition NDP MLAS brought a mother and an adorable little girl to question period this week as part of an effort to raise concerns over what was described as a lack of coverage for hearing aids in the province.
Mom Stephanie Schneck told reporters she was working three jobs and fundraising in order to help pay for her nine-year-old daughter’s $6,400 hearing aids. With her was the daughter, Gracie.
The province is reviewing the file, and it will be interesting to see what happens next.
It will also be interesting to see if this is a strategy the NDP plans on employing more.
Bringing “real people” — known as “validators” — into the Legislative Building to help raise issues, often related to health care, can be pretty effective.
In recent memory, the NDP has employed the strategy only a handful of times; but bringing in Stephanie and Gracie on the first day of question period has me wondering if we should get used to seeing more of this in coming weeks.
DRESS CODE UPDATE
A couple of notes on the latest news regarding attire in the Legislative Assembly.:
There were many invited members of the public on the floor of the assembly during the throne speech last week not wearing ties. There used to be a rule disallowing that, from what I understand. Interested in knowing what came of that rule.
Not that I’m complaining about the lack of ties. I have a long-standing mission of loosening dress-code regulations for members of the press gallery, in part because journalists are representatives of the public and, given the building is the people’s assembly, we should be able to dress accordingly.
Plus, Saskatchewan is not a particularly suitand-tie kind of place — I know well-respected business people who rock jeans almost 24-7.
At Wednesday’s throne speech, men wanting to be on the assembly floor to take photos were required to wear formal attire, including ties.
MBC reporter/news director Dan Jones was given grief for wearing a bolo tie and was originally told he couldn’t, but Speaker Mark Docherty’s office made a ruling allowing it.
We both were wearing bolos on Thursday and plan to do so throughout session. Hoping some MLAS get on board with what we are referring to as #bolothursday, too.
Interest tidbit from the province next door: Dougland Lamont, the leader of the Manitoba Liberals, changed out of jeans and into dress pants last week after being criticized for wearing denim in that province’s legislature.