Cabinet ministers have become the problem
Premier's faith in party members defies growing public disdain
If every Saskatchewan government minister called out by the Opposition to resign did actually resign, we might not have anyone left.
It's what oppositions do. For that reason, we probably should keep the NDP'S call for Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill's resignation in perspective.
Calls for ministerial resignations have become a gesture that no longer means anything in this province.
While in opposition, the Saskatchewan Party called for the resignation of virtually everyone in the last NDP government, which was, admittedly, drained of its most competent ministers long before it lost power in 2007.
Meanwhile, the last Saskatchewan cabinet minister who was forced to resign for a matter of ministerial competency was former NDP economic development minister Eldon Lautermilch after the release of the Spudco report. (And he was simply relocated to another portfolio.)
As for questionable ministerial conduct in the Sask. Party government, one might have thought former economic development minister Bill Boyd would have been fired after the provincial auditor's report on the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) land purchase.
But Boyd left cabinet of his own accord, (although he was eventually kicked out of the Sask. Party caucus for misrepresenting himself as a government minister while on personal business in China).
What's acceptable as ministerial competence and conduct in Saskatchewan has been lowered over the decades and is now likely lower than in a lot of other jurisdictions.
In Nova Scotia, former justice minister Brad Johns resigned last Friday after suggesting to reporters that he did not think domestic violence was an epidemic in that province. And in B.C., Selina Robinson resigned in February after suggesting the war in Gaza was a fight over a “crappy piece of land.”
But here in Saskatchewan, what it now takes to lose your government position is almost criminal ... quite literally.
Don Mcmorris was removed from cabinet after a 2016 drunk driving conviction.
The only other minister removed was Joe Hargrave in 2021 for defying travel protocol during COVID-19. Both were later reinstated to cabinet.
Nadine Wilson left caucus for misrepresenting her vaccine status, and both Ryan Domotor and Greg Lawrence left after they were criminally charged. But again, these incidents were separate from their duties.
On Monday, NDP Leader Carla Beck demanded Cockrill's resignation for both his handling of the current teachers' dispute and specifically for his ill-conceived comment to grieving mother Taya Thomas: “What do they want me to do? Give up my first-born child?”
Should Cockrill be required to resign for either?
It clearly was a stupid remark, although Cockrill said it was a poor choice of a commonly used expression, for which he said he apologized.
Thomas said Cockrill never apologized, Beck said on Monday, adding that both the teachers' negotiations and the Bill 137 debate are similarly laced with Cockrill untruths. She noted that in his very first press conference as education minister, he said every minister had received calls on the pronoun policy and the government receive tens of thousands of emails demanding legislation.
“Will the premier do the right thing and will he fire his education minister?” Beck asked Premier Scott Moe, calling Cockrill the “worst education minister” she's encountered.
While Moe admitted Cockrill “made a terrible mistake” in his choice of words, he said “he retains the full confidence in myself ... and caucus as well.”
Moe's continued faith in ministers seems to defy what may be a growing public perception of his cabinet.
Disdain for Cockrill among education stakeholders has grown palpable. Maybe they aren't calling for his resignation as Beck did, but many similarly describe him as smug and arrogant.
The legal community has virtually no respect for Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre — a problem that didn't exist when departing Don Morgan or Gord Wyatt ran the justice ministry.
Asked by reporters in the rotunda about a cabinet perception problem, Moe said voters will get their say on that this fall.
He is correct there.
But Moe might be well-advised that the last NDP government also seemed oblivious to poorly performing ministers until it was too late.