Moe’s claims of standing up for Sask. don’t include everyone

Three weeks from now, Premier Scott Moe’s government will oversee the delivery of a speech from the throne — a speech that comes two days after the federal election results and that will likely be the last throne speech before next year’s provincial election.

Tomorrow, Moe will offer what undoubtedly will be a more partisan speech in his first chance to address the party since assuming the helm 20 months ago.

No one is anticipating much in either speech that will be new — let alone visionary. And that may now be a big problem for the Saskatchewan premier.

Admittedly, leaders’ speeches to the cheering faithful are hardly ever profound. And the quaint parliamentary tradition that is the throne speech is seldom grandiose. Past the first ones, no really expects sagacious declarations.

That said, Moe has opted of late for the seemingly erudite proclamations that Saskatchewan is now a unifying force in Confederation because of our contribution to the national economy. One might hope either the Oct. 23 throne speech or his speech to Saskatchewan Party annual convention-goers on Saturday would offer something to underpin this big thought. In fact, it’s now rather important for Moe and his Sask. Party government to provide more.

What we are now hearing from Moe about the “need for a strong Saskatchewan” and “a federal (Liberal) government that’s added to national divisiveness” through “taxation and regulation policy that picks winners and losers” isn’t even thinly veiled propaganda any more. Right now it sounds no different than other political rhetoric aimed at benefiting Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives.

Maybe Moe and the Sask.

Party are justified in hammering Trudeau’s carbon tax and other Liberal government policies as bad for Saskatchewan, but that isn’t the same as standing up for Saskatchewan.

It’s mostly standing up for a particular political viewpoint at a time when we need our leadership to meet the challenge of complex world, national and especially provincial issues best solved by listening to various viewpoints. Moe needs to explain what standing up for Saskatchewan means ... or prove it means more than standing up for oil and rural conservative interests.

Consider the reluctance of Moe, Environment Minister Dustin Duncan et al. to attend Fridays for Future rallies to address climate change — especially in the context of their eagerness to support the Rally Against the Carbon Tax or criticize NDP Leader Ryan Meili for ducking such events.

Consider last week’s announcement that the government had wrapped up Saskpower’s solar energy net-metering program — a program that actually now is all about Sask. Party government regulatory policy and picking winners among entrepreneurs in the energy sector. We are a province with mounting greenhouse gas emissions and we have an economy overly reliant on oil, yet we can’t get our act together on what amounts to a small diversification exercise like solar power?

Consider the highlight of last year’s throne speech, the Trespassing Act — that clearly addressed a serious concern for rural landowners but left the First Nations community with a view their basic rights were attacked. Given that racial tension ranks only slightly behind economic dependence on non-renewable resources on the list of major Saskatchewan problems, does Moe not need to be standing up for Saskatchewan on this issue?

Consider that we are a province that is rightly celebrating 13-plus years of population growth to 1,174,462 people, yet government is now ignoring teachers’ contract demands to address overcrowded schools and even ducking growing public concerns about brand-new schools already being overcrowded. Is this government standing up for those kids in Saskatchewan?

Really, what we have been seeing from Moe is a vision of Saskatchewan where rural, oil and conservative concerns clearly take precedence over the concerns of others who somehow just can never seem to be getting the Saskatchewan Party’s ear. That’s not exactly how we usually define “vision.”

As a premier claiming to be standing up for Saskatchewan, maybe Moe needs to start explaining how his vision includes everyone.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-post