Wall’s instincts were off this session

It was a little thing, but Premier Brad Wall’s somewhat bizarre response Wednesday to Robert Buckingham’s initial firing at the University of Saskatchewan said much about what went wrong with his government this session.

Asked in question period about the U of S administration not only firing a tenured professor for speaking out against the TransformUS changes affecting his school of public health, but also calling in campus security to remove him, Wall called it “a human resources decision” and then bizarrely asked NDP Opposition leader Cam Broten if he knew why the university also decided to cancel Buckingham’s “administrative leave.”

There are clearly reasons to ask why a tenured professor should lose his sabbatical privileges along with his pension and right to set foot on campus, but one might think such concerns would centre on the unjust overreaction of the university. Surely Wall would be well acquainted with university concepts like tenure and administrative leave. And if he wasn’t, perhaps he should have simply left the job of responding to Advanced Education Minister Rob Norris, who had offered reporters a completely adequate expression of the government’s concerns just half an hour earlier.

It demonstrated shockingly bad instincts on Wall’s part — so bad that an incredulous Broten asked, “What are you talking about?”

That question could have been asked a lot during this session, a rather bad one for the Saskatchewan Party.

In fairness, a rare awkward response or two from Wall during the session likely doesn’t mean much in the greater scheme of things.

His government’s success is still tied to a strong economy producing jobs and the lowest unemployment rate since they started keeping records almost 40 years ago. And Wall was still sharp enough to note Thursday that Saskatchewan joins oilrich Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador as the only jurisdictions (country or province) to receive an A+ rating from the Conference Board of Canada in a recent report.

Broten may be right that the government’s problems this session were like stone chips in a windshield that may eventually cause it to crack. But when you’re driving one of the biggest gasguzzling luxury vehicles on the market, a new windshield isn’t a big deal.

With a 63 per cent approval rating at the mid-point of the second term, the Sask. Party will still likely have a pleasant drive to a third-term win in 2016.

That said, this spring’s sitting was a long drive that started to take its toll on Wall and company. Consider the announced retirements of key liberal voices like Norris, June Draude, Ken Krawetz or Bob Bjornerud. Consider the havoc created by the disclosure of Draude’s Ghana-London trip with its limo services and $200 lunches. There was a lot for Wall to handle and not all of it was handled particularly well.

Yes, Draude’s travel mess proved a good opportunity for Wall to demonstrate an eagerness to improve cabinet travel disclosure while simultaneously reminding voters that NDP cabinet ministers’ travel was as bad or worse. But it was actually one of the few times this spring when he demonstrated the sharp political instincts for which he is known. (And one might even question how sharp his initial instincts were, given that the Sask. Party’s first reaction was to suggest that no one had the right to pick on poor June and its second was to send in hitman Jeremy Harrison to suggest to the NDP that it wouldn’t like what the Sask. Party was going to raise about past NDP travel.)

When the thing you point to as the highlight of your spring session is a lacklustre, barely balanced budget in which you admit there likely wasn’t enough money for things like roads, it should tell you something.

But just how oblivious Wall and his government seemed to have become was shown in their defence of lean — the $40-million-plus efficiency program with which Broten had a field day, pointing out costs that seemed more about learning Japanese terminology and following a program than getting to the root of health-care issues.

Wall attempted to fob off lean complaints as issues that don’t make much impact among “severely normal” people. Well, actually, severely normal Saskatchewan people know you don’t have to learn Japanese to become more efficient. Moreover, it was an insult to health workers who, like Buckingham, also feel they have been stifled. And many of them live in former NDP ridings in the cities.

As was evident in Thursday’s mea culpa and rehiring of Buckingham by the U of S, decisions made in haste by tone-deaf or insular leaders tend to exact a toll on an institution’s reputation. Wall would be well advised to take note.

He would be further well advised to sharpen his political instincts, which seemed dulled by this session.