Sask. Party and NDP both acted like losers
Short sitting of the legislature packs in plenty of political buffoonery
Knowing they had a mere 14 days to snipe at each other one last time before the fall vote, politicians from both sides of the Saskatchewan legislature seemed extra determined to slam in enough political buffoonery for about three normal-sized sittings.
Who would have thought that practising proper two-metre social distancing in the legislature would have made them more obnoxious and nasty?
As for the loser in this mini-sitting to pass the 202021 Saskatchewan budget, that’s easy: It was you, dear voter.
What we witnessed these past three weeks was awful and decidedly unhelpful when it comes to you making a positive choice on Oct. 26.
But at least the Saskatchewan Party and NDP offered ample material for you to decide whom you may deem as the worst option. Let us consider the case for both.
The case for Sask. Party:
The government presented the biggest deficit in the province’s history without so much as an inkling as to when we may see surplus-budgeting daylight again. One might think that would have been the all-consuming problem for government.
So what was its one truly new bill? A bill to block cities and towns from ever banning handguns, something that absolutely no one was asking for or credibly thought was necessary. We are a province with some of the most intense suicide numbers in the country — particularly among Indigenous youth in northern communities — yet government felt no compulsion to support a suicide-prevention bill aimed at committing resources to addressing this blight. Why? Because it was an Opposition bill and political gamesmanship always takes precedence over good or needed legislation.
Priorities? A $120-million remand facility in Saskatoon — again without a second thought to the deficit/debt crisis — trumped the million dollars Health Minister Jim Reiter couldn’t find for AIDS Saskatoon’s safe injection site? Boldly re-announcing last fall’s news of three foreign trade offices in the Far
East/south Asia?
Sure, cut the Sask. Party government some slack for the Covid-19/economic mess now foisted upon them. But any such sympathy quickly dissipates when all you offer is fanciful notions of resource revenues returning to normal next year and a demonstrated emphasis on playing pre-election politics.
Add in 12 years of government indiscretions and one might think this mini-session would have been a slam-dunk win for Ryan Meili and the NDP. Not so fast.
The case for the NDP: Blessed with an embarrassment of political/budgeting riches to criticize, the Opposition’s first real order of business in question period was to raise unsubstantiated allegations that former Progressive Conservative premier Grant Devine was behind securing a publicly funded meth treatment centre in Estevan. Everyone says the facility is a good thing and is needed, anyway. Its second big issue was the (again, unsubstantiated) notion of a secret government sell-off of the Crowns.
It’d been 38 years since Devine was first elected, which was 38 years after Tommy Douglas was first elected. Devine/the privatization wars hold as much relevance to voters today as Douglas did to voters during Devine’s sweep. This may explain why the NDP has been out of office 22 of the last 38 years.
As for problems in the here and now, the NDP couldn’t find one live Saskatchewan citizen with problems amid this COVID-19 crisis to bring forward to the front steps of the legislature.
Budget issues in question period were pretty abandoned until last Tuesday, when Meili demanded a new budget/sitting in September because we didn’t see four-year surplus/deficit projections in the budget. Guess what? The last NDP government budget pre-2007 election didn’t provide fouryear surplus/deficit projections either.
Frankly, the NDP couldn’t handle issues handed to them on a platter, as per the provincial auditor report story of the former highway patrol chief buying up silencers and other assault weaponry under supposed government supervision. Bizarrely, it wasn’t even raised in Q.P.
And then there was the infamous Meili middle finger, a childish act somehow surpassing the often-classless behaviour of the government benches. Sorry, dear voter. It would have been nice to offer better news of those worthy of your vote.