Meili’s bid to lead NDP could be tough, lonely slog

Elements in party see him as too impatient, too far left

It was the least surprising announcement conducted in the most uneventful manner in recent Saskatchewan political memory.

There was Ryan Meili — just two months into his elected office career — revealing his very unsurprising NDP leadership bid before a handful of reporters in the rotunda of the legislature.

Meili stood alone. None of his 4,120 New Democrat supporters from 2013 were with him. He came just 44 votes short of what he would have needed to defeat Cam Broten during his last bid to win the rather historic job.

Even less surprising, none of his 10 caucus colleagues were around to support him.

Such an inauspicious beginning might have been a good thing.

This being his third run at the NDP leadership that started with his surprisingly strong 2009 showing against Dwain Lingenfelter, a low-key approach might have been a wise strategy for someone perceived as brash and over-eager. (Asked about this being his third run at the NDP leadership, Meili noted he took three cracks at getting into medical school and that worked out rather well for him.)

That said, this is a party that has an odd relationship with its leader.

On the one hand, NDP leaders since Tommy Douglas are revered by the membership of a party enamoured with its own legacy. It has turned leaders into personalities bigger than in real life.

But on the other hand, there remains an older guard of the NDP who firmly subscribe to their leaders needing to pay their dues — leaders they expect to move slowly and cautiously when it comes to converting precious social democratic doctrine into public policy.

Even the now-revered Roy Romanow was thought to have inappropriately stepped out of place by first running for the leadership in 1970 after a mere three years in elected office. After eventually biding his time, Romanow assumed the NDP leadership (unopposed) in 1987.

Romanow was succeeded by Lorne Calvert in 2001, but Calvert’s ascension came after 15 years in elected office and a strong consensus that the former NDP health minister was the heir apparent. In fact, the unwillingness of NDP baby boomers 16 years ago to relinquish power to Generation Xers — the Brad Wall generation of the Saskatchewan Party that’s been the foremost force in provincial politics during the past decade — may be the reason we have seen the NDP’s decline.

Admittedly, Meili already has his own strong following that firmly believes two previous leadership bids represent enough dues paid. Moreover, it is this group that especially blames the NDP’s 2016 setback on Broten and the NDP hierarchy being far too conservative.

But whether that’s necessarily all that helpful to Meili — a leadership candidate seen by many as both too left and too impatient — remains questionable. Perhaps the Meili who humbly appeared before reporters last Thursday was not only aware of the daunting task ahead of him but also of the need to rebrand himself as a unifying force within both the NDP and the province as a whole.

While Wall and company may have fallen on tougher times in the past year or so, make no mistake that they are still the most formidable force in Saskatchewan politics. Working in Wall’s favour is the reality that the province continues to grow — largely because of its somewhat recovering resource-based economy. Should this recovery continue, it will only enhance the Wall-Sask. Party narrative that Saskatchewan has fully transitioned into a conservative, business-resource-driven economy.

Less favourable to that narrative, however, are massive deficits, converting into big debt and the demise of public services including long-standing ones like the publicly owned Saskatchewan Transportation Company.

But whether Meili can capitalize on this remains to be seen.

As someone seen as on the party’s left with only two months of elected experience in opposition and no caucus support, this NDP leadership bid may be a difficult and lonely journey.