Liquor debate will reveal premier’s leadership
The looming debate on whether to sell off government-owned liquor stores is going to be an interesting study not only of Saskatchewan politics but also of Premier Brad Wall.
Generally, politicians have three aspects to their lives.
There’s the person you see in public — usually genial and engaging ( after all, they got their job because people voted for them); there’s a behind-thescenes, deeper personality and leadership style seen by staff and friends; and, at the most personal, there’s a private side known only to a spouse and sometimes close friends.
This premier has succeeded thus far with a light touch, not taking himself too seriously, and yet deftly handling issues with a balance of just enough gravitas and personal charm that people can see he likes his job and he’s one of us.
Part of Wall’s success is that at the deeper and more personal level he’s not very different from his public persona, though in private he’s more deliberate, serious and cautious about politics and public policy.
Insiders know that he’s still “Brad,” but there’s a professional resolve and firmness about the man that belies his airy public image. He doesn’t accept substandard work.
For this reason, it was not surprising four years ago when Wall distanced the party and himself from disgraced former MLA Serge LeClerc within hours after reports surfaced of questionable behaviour; ditto, for dropping from cabinet ministers whose work doesn’t measure up.
It was also easy to predict, as I did a month ago on my radio show, that high-ranking cabinet official Rick Mantey would soon be gone when questionable expenses surfaced on two occasions. In Wall’s world, you don’t get a second chance to make a bad impression.
In this context, consider the premier’s penchant for “thinking out loud,” which he occasionally does on public issues.
While Wall doubtless wants to know what Saskatchewan people think on issues — lately, the future of liquor retailing — there is generally, beneath the surface, more structure and less spontaneity than meets the eye.
In both his public and private lives, Wall loves football, golf, muscle cars and having fun at his own expense, but he doesn’t formulate issues on a whim.
From reducing hospital wait times to fighting the attempted BHP Billiton takeover of Potash Corp, Wall often leads with intuition but takes policy and strategic advice from a diverse group of advisers, some formal, others less so.
And as an issue becomes better thought out and more tightly defined, it is studied, policy implications are canvassed and often submitted for detailed public opinion polling, research and analysis in order to get a read on how Saskatchewan people see it.
On liquor privatization, in addition to moving the government out of a retail business — something clung to by generations of Saskatchewan left-wing thinkers — it will also provide consumers with greater product and hours choice, flexibility and competitive pricing, as has worked effectively in Alberta since 1993.
Wall seems to accept this. But he might go further, including, for example, the government remaining in the lucrative wholesale and distribution of liquor business — and, of course, taxing it — while removing itself from the expensive retailing side, which includes salaries, buildings, utilities and costs attached to every retail sale.
Wall may already be strategizing a “concerned Saskatchewan approach” to lost government jobs in liquor retailing, whether through early retirements, reassignments, voluntary buyout packages or an opportunity for employees to bid on buying existing stores.
While there will be consultation, Wall will also likely use the opportunity to inform the debate on the ultimate issue: does government make or lose money by privatizing liquor sales? Based on Alberta’s higher government revenues post-privatization, expect Wall to set out the case.
In the Insightrix poll on liquor store privatization last week, where respondents were given three choices of what should happen with liquor sales, pollsters gauged responses based on political party preference.
The telling statistic is that if an election were held today, 61 per cent of people would vote for Wall’s Saskatchewan Party; only 26 per cent would vote NDP.
In politics and life, effective leaders know when to use their popularity as a catalyst for change and when to hang back to protect their lead. Wall is poised, although asking for input in the next few months, to guide the road to enduring liquor policy change.