WALL’S PLOY CLEAR

Most Saskatchewan residents have the feeling that provincial Crown corporations exist to benefit the people. Hard right conservatives, however, have a deeply embedded ideology that governments are inherently bad while private business is inherently good, and that all Crowns should be privatized.

Those two beliefs collided during the 2003 provincial election that former Saskatchewan Party leader Elwin Hermanson lost after admitting that he would consider privatizing Crown corporations if the price was right.

Brad Wall replaced Hermanson, learning that it’s necessary sometimes to refrain from honestly admitting to hard-right beliefs, especially the dislike of Crown corporations. Since then Wall has quietly chipped away at the viability of Crowns, by such measures as limiting their fields of operation, draining much of their profits, and inviting private business into their areas of operation. Now, he feels emboldened to suggest that selling our Crown-owned liquor stores might be a financial boon for ordinary folks.

As he did with his plan to limit the viability of labour unions, Wall is resorting to the ploy of pretending to solicit the opinions of ordinary citizens to obtain cover for what he intends to do. I hope the good sense of citizens will enable them to see through the subterfuge. Russell Lahti Battleford