Sask. Party populism a harder sell these days
Embarking on her first campaign, the Saskatchewan Party candidate in Weyburn-big Muddy, Brenda Bakken-lackey, had little interest in selling her message to those she thought would be unreceptive.
She had a populist message to sell, and she was eager to ensure the right people — her people — heard it.
As Bakken-lackey scurried from house to house on a rainy August afternoon in 1999, she noticeably skipped several Weyburn homes.
Asked why, she bluntly explained that her party had previously identified them as supporting or leaning NDP and less likely to be amenable to her concerns about elitist, high-flying NDP cabinet ministers flitting about the globe or wasting hard-earned tax dollars on foreign investment.
It had been a long-standing tradition in the art of door-knocking in rural Saskatchewan for candidates to hit every door. After all, one runs to become everyone's MLA.
However, Bakken-lackey — well known by all in this community, then divided between social democrats and conservatives, as the proprietor of the local Dairy Queen — said she had been instructed not to bother trying to change any minds.
That 1999 election — which former NDP premier Roy Romanow called in the middle of a Saskatchewan harvest — would be a battle between the working stiffs supporting the Sask. Party and those supporting an elitist NDP government. Every vote mattered.
It was the beginning of the era of conservative populism — convincing like minds that the elite were the other guys.
And it sure seemed to work for the Sask. Party.
Not only did Bakken-lackey knock off incumbent NDP MLA and former school teacher Judy Bradley in Weyburn-big Muddy, but her fellow Sask. Party candidates came within three seats of winning their very first general election.
The party has maintained a stranglehold on rural Saskatchewan since, and won the last four provincial elections.
Fast forward a quarter-century and the Sask. Party will argue it's selling the same populism ... although who is an elitist and who is a populist has become a little blurry.
Most every question period this spring sitting has started the same way: with NDP Leader Carla Beck asking why Saskatchewan people can't get a break on the provincial gas tax in these inflationary times. Moe responds that he needs taxes to fix roads and deal with the inflation problem from the carbon tax imposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal minority government, propped up by Beck's federal NDP counterparts.
But past the rhetorical salvos and into the nitty gritty of policies, things have become a little more interesting.
On Monday, the NDP was talking about former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper getting nearly $240,000 a year from Saskatchewan, while offering scant detail as to why he was being paid.
It's no coincidence that the NDP brought up Harper on the same day he was in Regina participating in the rather elite Food, Fertilizer and
Fuel Global Forum, which its hosts referred to as a “who's who” of Saskatchewan.
The NDP message is that Moe and company prefer the “elite” crowd who don't usually demand explanations of what Harper is doing or why his services are needed when the Saskatchewan government is spending more than ever on trade offices and foreign travel. For this, the Sask. Party continues to make no apologies.
“It's crystal clear whose side they are on and it's not Saskatchewan,” said retiring Kindersley MLA Ken Francis on Wednesday. He replaced former economy minister Bill Boyd, who left politics after close business associates made millions on land flips for the Global Transportation Hub (GTH). “It's the Trudeau-ndp coalition.”
In Wednesday's question period, the NDP again brought up ministers' globe-trotting in the last six months — $219,000 for 17 trips by just eight cabinet ministers, including a lowballed $32,000 for Dubai (not including the $750,000 for a trade pavilion) and another $37,000 for a trip to India, $8,000 for three nights in Toronto by the energy minister and $3,500 by the CIC minister for “ground transportation” in Paris.
Beyond the Food, Fuel and Fertilizer crowd, this is a tough sell. And one wonders how it will go over on the fall election doorsteps.