NDP still missing the mark on economic issues

There is a middle ground in the COVID-19 and political fights in this province and the ugly reality for New Democrats is that they are likely further away from that middle ground than the Saskatchewan Party.

The even uglier reality is that the New Democrats still don't quite get this.

Of course, this will be very difficult for some New Democrats to stomach ... which probably says a lot about why they may now be in the problem they are in.

And at least when it comes to the science of the COVID-19 fight, this may seem unfair.

As much as one can generalize about public opinion on the pandemic, the polls show the left-ndp are more willing to follow the science and advice provided by doctors and the medical community.

This shouldn't be a political issue. At a time of a public health crisis, we should all be following medicine and science that told us Thursday that Saskatchewan will soon reach 500-plus cases a day — numbers that will swamp the health system and already have the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) scrambling to get more ICU beds because coronavirus patients are taking existing ones needed for those who have heart attacks and strokes.

But lost on many on the left is that the vast majority of Saskatchewan — including conservative-minded voters — do get what the SHA and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab are telling them to do.

Yes, that fringe antimask crowd is virtually all uber-conservative in its libertarian and often bizarre anti-science beliefs. This makes it almost equally bizarre that Premier Scott Moe's has been less willing to call out their nonsense like Progressive Conservative Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister now has.

And perhaps this doesn't bode well for Moe and he may not being doing himself any favours by not distancing himself from this element. Certainly, he isn't helping to stop the spread by not coming down on the anti-maskers.

But the biggest — and arguably and most dangerous — political disconnection right now in Saskatchewan may very well involve the majority of voters who don't earn a living from a public sector wage and sincerely fear their business-, tradesor resource-based livelihoods are threatened by COVID-19 economic slowdowns.

There are many people more worried about the repercussions of the virus than the virus itself. And those economic realities again hit home with the November job numbers that were down nearly 21,000 from a year ago.

This is something that the NDP and Leader Ryan Meili didn't get during the October election campaign when they ran a campaign seemingly oblivious of the economy — specifically, Saskatchewan's agricultural and non-renewable resource-based economy.

The once small-farm based party not only can't win in agriculture/resource based rural Saskatchewan, but also can't win much in north Regina or Moose Jaw or Prince Albert or most anywhere in Saskatoon including former strongholds like Riversdale.

And given what we have seen since the Oct. 26 vote, there is nothing to suggest they get it now.

Thursday, we again saw that divide when Meili raised the layoffs of 465 people from Evraz North America. The problem was that Meili attempted to frame the issue at Evraz as one of Saskenergy or Jason Kenney's Alberta buying pipe from elsewhere.

He simply teed it up for the Sask. Party to remind voters the lack of pipelines — something some federal and provincial New Democrat oppose — is a way bigger part of Evraz's problem.

Really, did Meili and the NDP forget that the Sask. Party ran an entire election campaign with images of the NDP leader at an anti-pipeline rally?

While the Ndp-left takes great glee on social media and elsewhere mocking Moe for resisting a shutdown, what they don't get is the premier and the Sask. Party are speaking to the real concerns of a majority of Saskatchewan people.

That the NDP still can't seem find a way to connect to people's economic worries is rather stunning.