Moe’s bad explanations give Meili easy wins
It’s not exactly as if any recent ground gained by leader Ryan Meili and the Saskatchewan NDP has been particularly hard-earned.
Yes, Meili has demonstrated improved performance during this fall sitting as he grows into his leadership role.
He is more comfortable in the assembly and far more willing to take on Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party government ministers. Long gone are the days of doing politics differently, as Meili professed he would when he entered the chamber for the first time last March as NDP leader.
Things like his line about the Sask. Party’s “not criminal, in nature” justifications play well among those already motivated by their anger with the Sask. Party because of cuts or general political outlook.
Meili needs to be careful. Sophomoric smugness isn’t a particularly good look for him. Cheap slogans are generally unhelpful in the long run in a business where you need to be both liked and taken seriously. Politics is still won on policy and through tough work in the trenches.
While there seems to be less NDP emphasis on pet issues, there still needs to be more focus on meat-andpotato issues such as the provincial sales tax increase on construction costs and other budgetary considerations.
The NDP needs to reach out to real people with dayto-day problems who can’t easily be categorized as NDP types. The NDP also must make headway in rural Saskatchewan. So far, there are few signs of that.
Strangely, whether it’s their adamant opposition to the federal carbon tax, or the pending trespassing laws that came together remarkably quickly and perhaps a bit carelessly, Moe and the Sask. Party seem to be going out of their way to solidify their rural base rather than solidifying city support. (Some First Nations people are suspicious the trespassing laws could be a dangerous dog whistle being blown in their direction.)
But while there is just no way Meili and the NDP are yet threatening the Sask. Party’s grip on power, such clumsy management of issues does take its toll on a government if it continues to accumulate. And Moe and his ministers are gifting Meili some easy wins.
Consider the number of stories we’ve seen this fall tainted by inconsistent, incongruent and occasionally downright bizarre explanations from Moe and his ministers:
That the $1.9-billion Regina bypass is “on time and on budget” according to Highways Minister Lori Carr, notwithstanding 1,100 “minor deficiencies,” a yet to be determined number of major ones and a quadrupling of costs from the original $400 million estimates.
That Loblaws did pay something for its GTH land, but revealing how much would put the massive food retail giant at a competitive disadvantage. Like the bypass, the government maintains its nothing-tosee-here approach even in the face of a growing list of problems — like Thursday’s legitimate question on how we can even develop some GTH land that has pipelines buried underneath.
That it’s perfectly fine for voters in Regina Walsh Acres and Saskatoon Eastview to go more than a year without representation after their respective MLAS Warren Steinley and Corey Tochor leave for federal politics in fall of 2019 and before the provincial election is called in the fall of 2020.
That it may be OK for public servants to take vendor-sponsored trips in certain circumstances, yet neither Moe nor Health Minister Jim Reiter can cite one circumstance in which it would be OK.
That taxpayers continue to subsidize large corporations to keep head-office jobs here (even though it’s clearly not working), yet we’re not allowed to know how much it does.
All have done little to enhance the Sask. Party government’s credibility.
It has been Moe’s straightshooting, easygoing style that’s allowed the Sask. Party’s popularity to carry on seamlessly after Wall’s departure in February. A growing list of nonsense could be taking its toll on that image.
Moe’s problems of late have largely been of his own making. Interestingly, the unexpected and arguably undeserved beneficiary may be Meili.