A big leap to think NDP has chance in election

Today is a day that comes around but once every four years — an occurrence that now appears at least four times more frequent than Saskatchewan voters change governments.

Or so seems to be the case after the Saskatchewan NDP’S terrible, horrible, no good, awful week that leads into Monday’s resumption of the Saskatchewan legislative sitting — the last before the next provincial election that could now be sooner than later.

As per this space last week, what was once thought to be just a case of the Saskatchewan Party government using election speculation to mess with the NDP may be turning into something more real with Premier Scott Moe this week not ruling out a spring vote.

The nomination of Jeremy Cockrill for The Battlefords makes him the Sask. Party’s 55th candidate, leaving it with just six vacant seats, including the perceived-to-be-unwinnable northern seats. The NDP’S nomination Thursday night of Lyle Whitefish in Saskatchewan Rivers is only its 29th nomination, leaving candidacies for constituencies like Saskatoon Nutana still vacant.

With eight months to go before the scheduled Oct. 26 vote, what are the chances of seeing an NDP candidate on your doorstep — something, especially critical to opposition candidates — when more than half of them are not yet nominated? And how reduced is that chance if you tie up the existing 13-person caucus during the spring sitting and Moe calls a spring election?

Moreover, the Sask. Party has scads of money ready to be spent while the NDP’S war chest is about as bare as the party’s bank of reasons why it should replace the government. And going to an early election before the NDP can do any fundraising — or magically get better at being Opposition — is all the more reason to take Moe’s early election musings seriously.

This takes us to the NDP’S terrible, horrible, no good, awful past week, so indicative of an opposition party that appears lost and highly vulnerable right now.

After more than 12 years in power, the Sask. Party certainly has created its share of problems: A doubling of public debt to nearly $23 billion; a slowing economy; labour unrest; the Global Transportation Hub; the Regina bypass; and the Brandt/cnib building in Wascana Park. And then there’s the mysterious goings on surrounding party loyalist Grant Kook running the First Nations and Metis Fund and investments in Muskowekwan Resources Ltd. You can’t swing a dead cat in this province without hitting some friend of the Sask. Party involved in some controversy.

The NDP did try to raise Kook and his investment funds in a legislative committee meeting that was mysteriously shut down Thursday. And on Wednesday, an NDP motion in the public accounts committee to “reject the proposed Brandt building in Wascana Park and restart the process from the beginning” was shot down by Sask. Party committee members who couldn’t be bothered to ask a single question.

But if you’re the opposition, you don’t just drop such issues. You doggedly pursue them.

So what was NDP Leader Ryan Meili’s caucus doggedly pursuing in the precious time it has left? Well, its first big issue this week was the freedom-of-information find that Education Minister Gord Wyant spent $9.77 on coffee with his deputy minister. How does that sound to anyone that doesn’t already dislike the Sask. Party, anyway? Might more reasoned voters see this as a tad petty?

The other big event for the NDP this week was a news conference in front of the General Hospital complaining about “safety concerns and limited parking for patients and staff at the facility.” The problem? It was the NDP government in 1993 that shut down the Plains Health Centre where there happened to be plenty of parking. Ostensibly, the Plains was chosen for closure because it had asbestos, but this facility is now the Sask Polytechnic campus — renovated for about the same as the $100-million, over-budget General Hospital renovations.

You get the picture. Electoral success requires time and money, but also requires wise issue selection. The NDP doesn’t seem to have any of that.

Mandryk is political columnist for the Regina Leader-post and Saskatoon Starphoenix.