Opinion by Murray Mandryk • Oct 3O, 2023
Former SaskTel president Roy Styles along with Minister Jim Reiter. Styles joined the NDP this week as a special adviser.© TROY FLEECE
It’s yet to be determined whether landing former deputy finance minister and former SaskTel/Crown Investment Corp. CEO Ron Styles as a special adviser to the Saskatchewan NDP caucus will be as big a deal as NDP Leader Carla Beck hopes it is.
Really, what is the meaningful impact of a single non-partisan — even one as notable as Styles — joining the Oppositions ranks?
Will it result in better policy development for a party still struggling outside of Regina and Saskatoon city limits? Will hundreds of rural voters flock to the NDP just because a former high-ranking bureaucrat has joined its ranks? It seems unlikely.
The NDP’s bigger problem — as may again be demonstrated at its annual convention this weekend — is that it’s still viewed by a majority as being out of step with the goals and values of a majority of Saskatchewan people.
It seems unlikely the Styles announcement will change that — especially if his emergence in a key advisory role for the NDP is seen as a one-off thing.
All that said, given the slow-moving nature of political change in this province, there might be another measure of the impact of Styles’s announcement last week.
The better measure might now simply be the people silently nodding along with Styles’s words that suggests the Sask. Party has lost its way. In politics, it’s cumulative.
“Over the past five or six years, I’ve seen we’re not reaching our potential,” Styles said on Thursday — more than a decade removed from his days of preparing provincial budgets, but not oblivious to the fact Saskatchewan is now “second last when it comes to GDP growth and second last in Canada when it comes to job creation.”
“On the social side, we see more homelessness on the street. We have very high rates of HIV, STDs — just about any social indicator that you want to look up. Those are the types of issues that have galvanized my (decision) to join the NDP team.”
Short of former Regina Coronation Park MLA Mark Docherty, who said this summer that he likely couldn’t see a single reason for his constituents to re-elect a Sask. Party member, it may be the most damning indictment of this government in quite some time.
“I’ve not been partisan in the past. I’ve never held a membership with any political party,” Styles continued. “I always saw my role as really being a bureaucrat working in the public interest doing the very best I can for the people of Saskatchewan.
“This decision really comes about as a result of the last five or six years and what I see as deterioration of the standard of living here in Saskatchewan. I’m similar to most other people probably in the room. I’ve got family here in Saskatchewan. It’s very important to me that the province is continuing to make progress — that there’s going to be jobs for my grandchildren.”
While consulting and teaching at the University of Regina, Styles said he has seen a marked change: “What I find difficult right now is that the openness of the government to actually consult with people throughout Saskatchewan … has been lost.”
Decision making has been centralized to Premier Scott Moe’s office, he added. As someone who has worked not far from that office, Styles would likely know.
“It is tough for people to understand what the debate should be and what the opportunities are to improve things,” the former high-ranking Crown corporation official said.
“(But) If you’re not having an honest discussion you’re not being truthful about the situation.”
For those already frustrated with the way the Sask. Party government under Moe seems to have abandoned expertise and consultation since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Styles’s words will especially reverberate.
“Those are the things that made me realize you’re probably not gonna be able to change anything with the present government,” he added. “What you need to do is you need to change governments.”
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
Related
With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark TheStarPhoenix.com and LeaderPost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment