Non-partisanship paying off for premier
Premier Scott Moe is doing rather well, but it might be inadvisable to tell him that.
One of the big problems for Moe and his Saskatchewan Party advisers since this COVID -19 pandemic started two months ago is they’ve still too often taken social distancing to mean limiting decision-making to a self-isolated inner circle of political strategists.
Perhaps the worst thing right now is polling feeding the self-serving notion that this already-too-insular approach has somehow been infallible.
It surely hasn’t been. Moe’s success can and should be directly attributed to following the very non-partisan lead of Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).
And, as it turns out, a non-partisan approach actual does wonders for politicians’ popularity. Voters like sincerity ... and will, undoubtedly, sniff it out when politicians are acting in their own self-interest.
So it might be constructive for all of us right now — including Moe and his gang — to quickly review what’s worked, what hasn’t and why.
We are still contending with the frightening La Loche outbreak in the “far north” that’s accounting for 80 per cent of the province’s 186 active case (as of Wednesday). However, there’s a success story in the rest of province, where there are no active cases south of Saskatoon and only 13 remaining in that city.
It’s often necessary to look past immediate problems and outside our borders to see how we are doing. Compared with other provinces, Saskatchewan has not had the breakouts in long-term care homes, food processing facilities or work camps, keeping cases and deaths remarkably low.
This has not gone unnoticed by the public, 65 per cent of which, according to an Innovative Research survey of 203 Saskatchewan residents in a web panel from May 1 to 7, approve or strongly approve of the Moe government’s handling of the outbreak.
The poll further suggested Moe has a favourable impression with 48 per cent of the admittedly small sampling, compared with 22 per cent left with an unfavourable impression and the finding that 40 per cent now think more highly of Moe compared with 16 per cent who now think less favourably of him.
As suggested earlier, yielding to the guidance of the health professionals has been integral in the cautious Re-open Saskatchewan Plan that’s also been generally well received by the public.
“I’d be surprised not to see (polling) findings like this, given that we’ve had few deaths, we’re starting to reopen and we’re clearly better off than the rest of the country,” said Jim Farney, head of the politics and international studies department at the University of Regina.
“It’ll probably be the defining (fall election) issue, if you lump the economy in with that.”
The ever-astute Farney neatly sums up how important and beneficial it’s been for Moe to steer clear of politics in this time of crisis.
Given this success in his non-partisan approach, it’s more than a little puzzling why Moe and company haven’t taken a more non-partisan, inclusive approach in its decision making or why the brain trust continues to play political games on the need for a budget and overall accountability in the legislature.
Moe clearly implied in his briefing Monday that a budget was unnecessary because spending estimates were tabled in the legislature on March 18 (they were not) and because Finance Minister Donna Harpauer was willing to provide revenue updates.
Credit Moe on Wednesday for acknowledging that nothing was tabled, and for opening up the door to legislative committee work and perhaps a 2020-21 budget before the Oct. 26 vote. But suggesting that recalling the legislature and tabling a budget really has anything to with “negotiations between the House leaders” is still nonsense and political gamesmanship.
Either democracy and a more non-partisan approach are important to Moe and House leader Jeremy Harrison, or they aren’t. But it might be advisable to remind them that non-partisanship has been working much better for them than the usual political games.