Wall dedicating his summer to shoring up the party’s foundation

It appears Premier Brad Wall’s summer project is going beyond the usual patching and repairs we all tend to do at this time of year.

Heavy work on his Saskatchewan Party foundation also seems in order.

Oh, sure, the summer patching comes first. And given all the damage from the March 22 tornado that was the 2017-18 Saskatchewan budget, there’s a lot of patching to do.

This week, the government was puttying over cracks resulting from the Saskatchewan Transportation Company bus crashing through the opposite wall on its way out of the province. The government had no fewer than two separate events with cabinet ministers on restoring city bus pass discounts to low-income users.

It’s a solid little policy decision one should expect from a 10-year government. That said, it won’t win back those who are outraged by the budget cuts.

The provincial government also announced a $9.7-million deal with three Saskatchewan short-line railways to purchase 898 hopper cars from the Saskatchewan Grain Car Corporation’s fleet — another measure announced in the budget. While the established short-lines Great Western Railway Ltd. (150 cars) and Great Sandhills Railway (85 cars) are part of the announcement, the bulk of the cars will go to Big Sky Rail Corp. (663 cars), falling under the purview of exporter and business owner Murad Al-Katib.

This is also what the summer season is about for Wall and company — whatever it needs to do to spruce up the place a bit. (Heck, provincial government officials were even front and centre at the unveiling in Rouleau of the new Corner Gas interactive tour — this, from a government that has clearly made the shooting of another such TV series in this province highly unlikely thanks to the 2011 demise of the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit.)

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean Wall is shying away from the heavy work that needs to get done if his party is to remain standing in government in three years.

Right now, he’s feverishly digging away to ensure there are no cracks in the Sask. Party foundation. Consider a few of his tweets this week and what he’s really getting at:

“Cdns get a carbon tax won’t help global GHGs & we’ll shed many jobs to the US & elsewhere. SK will stand firm against this ill-conceived tax,” Wall tweeted Wednesday in reference to a recent opinion poll showing waning support for Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax.

Of course, such a public pronouncement should be expected of Wall, who has been perfectly consistent in his opposition — an issue he has kept on the front burner.

But, however philosophically consistent this position is for Wall, one can’t help but be a little suspicious that at least part of it is about remaining at the head of a majority coalition of discontent. After all, it’s easier for a governing politician to oppose something that another government is doing than to patch up the problems at home.

In a similar vein, Wall was also tweeting Wednesday: “For Omar Khadr, there ought never be an offer to ‘settle’. Some things are worth the legal fight ... right to the end.”

Regardless of whether you believe Khadr was an abused child soldier tortured into confession or a murderous terrorist in no way deserving of $10 million in compensation after killing a U.S. army medic in Afghanistan, you might be curious about why this is an issue for a provincial premier at all. You might even be curious about Wall’s position on the rule of law and what other things he views as “worth the legal fight ... right to the end.”

Less puzzling is why he and so many other conservative minded politicians would be so eager to chime in on an issue so popular with their base.

Of course, Wall would gladly take on this heavy work because he believes in it.

But for a premier sliding in he polls this summer, it’s also about maintaining that solid foundation.

That foundation has to remain solid for the next vote.