Sask. NDP must find way to unite

Coming together as a cohesive unit will make for a series of difficulties for the members of the Saskatchewan NDP caucus.

But as a small 10-person unit with shared values, a clearly defined enemy and the need to be seen by a broad swath of voters as being reasonable and practical, they will (and are already) coming together.

The far greater challenge will be for the caucus to survive a party already divided by the Leap Manifesto and likely to encounter another divisive leadership race.

Trading outgoing leader Cam Broten and retiring Lakeview MLA John Nilson for new MLAs Carla Beck (Lakeview), Nicole Sarauer (Regina Douglas Park) and Nicole Rancourt (Prince Albert Northcote) was not the outcome the NDP wanted. But when it comes to the caucus as a unit, it actually won’t be that disruptive.

And the caucus itself may have taken a big step toward that needed cohesion by unanimously choosing Trent Wotherspoon as interim Opposition leader in the legislature.

However, that some in the NDP have a problem that Wotherspoon would announce this before the NDP provincial council meets to choose the “party” interim leader nine days hence is indicative of the big problems between the party and the caucus right now.

The next big problem is clearly the left/right political divide between the party and the caucus.

That Wotherspoon — who was closely aligned with Broten’s centrist approach — also eliminated himself Friday from the full-time job as leader (it’s because he has a young family, he says) means the party has just lost its most viable caucus candidate who might bridge that divide.

The challenge now is that while the caucus might be relatively united in recognizing the Leap Manifesto is a political nail bomb waiting to go off, the party isn’t so united.

Vague and largely self-indulgent, the Leap plan was first introduced to the public last year by Naomi Klein and husband Avi Lewis and passed at last weekend’s federal NDP convention for future debate consideration. It advocates halting big oil infrastructure projects (i.e. no more pipelines) and stops just short of calling for oil to stay in the ground (although that appears to be its long-term intent).

The quiet deal breaker in Saskatchewan should be its promotion of local agriculture over large-scale farming — code for the left’s opposition to genetically modified agriculture. (Yes, on the left you are supposed to subscribe to overwhelming scientific consensus when it comes to climate change, but not on the non-existent harm of GMOs.)

But the self-described “radical leap” does its political damage where it would do its economic damage — by shutting down the oil-based economy. It says much that Leap is vehemently opposed by Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley, who actually got her party elected to govern in the most improbable of locations and as a result is implementing real policies to address climate change.

That everyone from the labour movement to former Saskatchewan NDP ministers Pat Atkinson and Andrew Thomson (who may not have previously agreed on anything) also oppose Leap says much. But that it would also be opposed by the likes of York University professor Jim Laxer — author of the 1971 Waffle Manifesto in the NDP — is most telling.

“It’s no wonder that so many people are saying that Leap is a document for elites and not the majority of Canadians,” Laxer wrote in Maclean’s magazine.

Interestingly, re-elected Saskatoon Nutana MLA Cathy Sproule was the one caucus member who voted in favour of the Leap Manifesto for reasons she says had to do with simply having the environment discussion.

But even as the most devout environmentalist the Saskatchewan legislature has seen since Peter Prebble, Sproule said there are things in the Leap Manifesto she simply cannot support, including its pipeline bans and opposition to large-scale farming.

As such, one sees how a potentially divided NDP caucus is already coming together.

However, healing the rift between the caucus and the party may be another matter.