Oil alienation is real, but so is the political divide in Saskatchewan
How divided we now are is as clear and evident as is the yellow piping on Premier Scott Moe’s coveralls.
At the Canada Action pro-pipeline rally in front of the legislature a month ago, Moe tossed out business attire required for inside the building for a high-visibility work jacket similar to what many in the crowd were wearing. His bold fashion choice included yellow reflective piping — maybe a too-bold choice, given that some saw it as a call-out to the yellow vest movement, whose members were told to keep their vests at home. It is excessively paranoid, but there again, Moe hasn’t done much to win over his detractors since.
He has since declared he has no problem with cabinet ministers Lori Carr and Greg Ottenbreit attending yellow vest rallies. While Moe said he “may not agree with everything that the yellow vests are putting forward” when it comes to vast conspiracy theories of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supporting world government through the UN or extreme opposition to immigration, he has no problems with his ministers supporting those concerned about federal Liberal government policies on pipelines and the carbon tax.
On Feb. 16, Moe intends to join federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Saskatchewan Senator Denise Batters at a pro-pipeline rally in Moosomin.
“It’s so obvious that we need pipelines, both Trans Mountain and Energy East, to get the oil from the Prairie region to the coast,” said rally organizer Sinclair Harrison, a former Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president.
Unfortunately, that we need pipelines is obvious neither to those who oppose them nor to those wanting to make pipeline protest all about their own agenda. And that Moe doesn’t seem worried about this divide speaks to a bigger problem.
The Moosomin rally stems from the Canada Action lobby that was supposed to be part of the Ottawa convoy passing through town. But that convoy was cancelled, and instead Moosomin will be the stopover for the “United We Roll! Convoy for Canada” — the now “re-branded” yellow vest protest lobby.
So while the (ex)-yellow vesters will not necessarily be sharing the podium with Moe and Scheer, they will, undoubtedly, be in the crowd eager to cheer the abundant anti-trudeau-carbon-tax message they will no doubt hear.
That Moe and Scheer will most likely be eager give them what they want — while simply and wilfully ignoring past anti-immigration sentiments — has gone from unproductive to downright troubling.
Obviously, in Moosomin (a provincial riding Saskatchewan Party candidate Steve Bonk won with 75 per cent of the vote in 2016) or in the federal riding of Souris-moose Mountain (won by Conservative Robert Kitchen in 2015 with 70 per cent of the vote), there will be agreement on the core message.
One might rightly argue it’s a message that should resonate in a resource-based province like Saskatchewan where, as Moe told the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) this week, we shouldn’t necessarily take for granted jobs in mining, agriculture, oil and gas, or manufacturing that “deserve more recognition and respect” because they “create opportunity and wealth for so many families in our province.”
But if frustration with today’s “oil alienation” is legitimate, so is the frustration of those who believe Moe and Scheer are ignoring the climate change/ greenhouse gas emissions side of the equation. And their frustration boils over when they feel Moe is willingly catering to those on the far right-wing eager to publicly state racist sentiments on immigration or fringe conspiracy.
We need politicians willing to say something more than what they think their base wants it hear.
Clearly, the left leadership needs to articulate to its base Moe’s message on the vital role oil plays in the Saskatchewan economy.
But Moe and Scheer also need to denounce fringe views next weekend, and maybe even start publicly stating that environmental concerns are also valid.
Who knows? It might even narrow the divide.