WALL RETIREMENT BRINGS OUT WORST IN PEOPLE

“The day Brad Wall retired was the best day of my life.”

That’s one of the first online statements I read shortly after Premier Wall announced he was stepping down from politics. My initial reaction was ‘Wait ... what?’ The commenter was married and had two children, yet the best day of his life was when Brad Wall retired? It seemed a sad treatise on the state of his perspective on life.

Of course, social and mainstream media were filled with best wishes and a complimentary homage to Wall — deservedly so. However, the personal vitriol that followed was almost breathtaking at times, even to this writer, who spent 16 years in the public eye herself.

The contrast between the positive and negative commentary was striking. The positive tended to focus on the job Wall has done: population growth, reduced surgical wait times, predictable municipal revenue sharing, children’s hospital, etc. The negative comments focused almost exclusively on an outright personal attack — from name calling to wishing he was dead instead of just retiring.

There is no requirement of mandatory feting of a political leader when they retire. It’s completely acceptable to say, “I want a new leader because, for example, I did not agree with the decision to sell the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC). I hope this decision is reversed.” Even Premier Wall, who may not agree with the content, would accept the statement as a reasonable perspective.

The beauty of living in a country as great as ours is that citizens are free to openly disagree with decisions made by their democratically elected government without fear of reprisal.

One person wrote that Wall was the worst premier our province had ever had. Obviously repeat election wins and polling would statistically prove this statement wrong.

Right under that comment, someone wrote that Wall was a witch. A witch? Seriously … It’s hard not to laugh. How do you respond to something like that?

Recently, the StarPhoenix did an interview with Kathy Young, Wall’s director of communications, which was reposted on Facebook. In response to the post, a political studies professor from the University of Saskatchewan wrote the comment, “What. A. Loser.”

Loser?

Really?

As we have seen from the Trump administration, political leaders change their top staff almost as often as they change their underwear. I don’t know Kathy Young; however, she has remained the chief communications person for Canada’s most popular premier, so the word ‘loser’ isn’t the first descriptor that comes to mind.

It is this type of unaccountable discourse that leads to the demise of intelligent conversation and debate. My children, ages four and six, already know better than to use the term ‘loser.’ They already understand that word is typically generated from small-minded individuals, often motivated by petty jealousy.

The university should be embarrassed that their PhD educated employee could not come up with anything better than “loser.” The community should be concerned this person is allowed to teach and influence.

Do we take the discussion a step further and wonder aloud whether the (male) commenter felt it easier to call Kathy Young a loser because she was female? Or do we stop that analysis before it even begins because, unfortunately, it then becomes easier for the commenter to justify his pettiness by dismissing any criticisms of his comments as mere feminist rants (which is, obviously, a handy reason to dismiss any legitimate argument).

So — what to do? First, we all have a responsibility to call out this behaviour. It’s not acceptable to observe the inappropriateness and just scroll by on your phone. If you want to criticize the decision of any elected person of any political stripe, feel free. All political decisions are, rightfully, open to attack. In fact, intelligent discourse is encouraged.

But ask yourself before you comment: is this statement about a decision that was made or a generalized personal attack I feel entitled to make just because I know how to type?

There is a big difference, and we all need to become more mindful of it.