Opinion by Murray Mandryk
The hubris vibe from the Saskatchewan Party cabinet is starting to grate on people simply looking for leadership and help.© Michelle Berg
The Saskatchewan Party isn’t the only party in this province struggling to connect with voters.
This has obviously been a longstanding problem for the Saskatchewan NDP that started well before it was relegated to opposition.
Come to think of it, it started the same way: A 16-year-old NDP government got caught up in its own hubris, forgot how to listen and grew out of touch. Sound familiar?
Last’s week’s Insightrix poll of online panellists may be demonstrating the consequences.
The poll showed the Sask. Party at 46 per cent provincewide (compared with 60.7 per cent popular vote in the 2020 election) and now only nine percentage points ahead of the NDP at 37 per cent (compared with 31.8 per cent in 2020).
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With most of the NDP gains in Regina (where it’s at 57 per cent) and Saskatoon (48 per cent) and the Sask. Party still at 56 per cent elsewhere in the province, perhaps there’s reason for the Sask. Party to still feel smug about its prospects.
But while that arrogance might work in the legislative assembly, it doesn’t work when the government has to confront real people and problems.
That reality appeared to hit home during last week’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association ( SUMA) bearpit .
The truth be told, most every major organization in this province leans one way or the other. Sask. Party MLAs are near giddy when they wander on the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention floor.
But SUMA — a combination of big-city and small-town mayors and councillors — is as cross-sectional and non-partisan as it gets in Saskatchewan.
Perhaps it’s because municipal politicians have to deal with people who think government is too big and their taxes are too high while simultaneously demanding local politicians do something for those who are homeless.
For such reasons, mayors and councillors tend to be more grounded. They come face to face with such problems in ways MLAs don’t.
Sask. Party MLAs should start listening to what municipal politicians are saying.
Ninety per cent of SUMA delegates voted last week to say “growth that works for everyone” isn’t working if you’re on social assistance.
Mayors and councillors bluntly told Premier Scott Moe and his cabinet that the problem with the Saskatchewan Income Support program isn’t Justin and Jagmeet or the carbon tax. The problem with SIS is that it’s broken and the province needs to fix it by reinstating direct payments for rent and utilities.
Maybe that same message is just rhetoric from opposition MLAs. But should it mean something coming from local councillors?
“My people are suffering while the province they live in celebrates wealth and success,” said Prince Albert Coun. Tony Head, challenging the government to commit $100 million of its surplus to mental health and addictions driving the problems.
Added Saskatoon Coun. David Kirton: “Across Saskatchewan, people are saying SIS is manufacturing homelessness. People are stuck in shelters and the math does not work.”
The response from Finance Minister Donna Harpauer? A one-time resource windfall and 2023-24 surplus can’t be used to fix actual problems. Municipal politicians might as well have been talking to the wall.
After SUMA, grumbling over cabinet’s attitude was as loud as it was after the budget a month ago. That, too, says something.
One gets it’s natural for a 16-year government to fall out of touch. And, as is evident in the Insightrix poll, the NDP is still floundering at 25 per cent outside the two major cities. Clearly, it hasn’t hit on all the right issues, either.
But for every issue like “ Duty to Consult” on First Nations issues unlikely to add to the NDP’s still-meagre vote total, the Opposition is raising another one that is now resonating.
SIS. Homelessness. Emergency hospital service closures . Ambulance shortages. Burned-out doctors and nurses being muzzled . Even inflation that sees Saskatchewan people cutting back more than any other Canadians, according to a recent Angus Reid Institute poll.
Whether the Sask. Party knows it or not, it’s falling out of touch. It’s actually a problem made worse by the fact it can’t recognize it.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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