New party gears up to challenge status quo

A group of people unsatisfied with the current political situation in Saskatchewan are gearing up try to challenge the status quo.

In a recent press release, the group announced the formation of a new centrist political party dubbed the Living Sky Party.

The document clearly targets the NDP for not being an effective opposition, but Living Sky is just as dissatisfied with the ruling Saskatchewan Party.

“This opposition is simply ineffective,” the release stated. “We have a government in Saskatchewan with a massive budget deficit, unchecked and questionable spending, people in crisis and critical government services that are disappearing.

“Over six months ago, the NDP wasted the provincial election opportunity by running a childish campaign. At that time, the NDP could have hammered the government on these issues, but instead they have left the Sask Party unchecked and unaccountable now for almost a decade.”

Ken Grey, a former Saskatchewan Liberal who has also run as a candidate for the NDP and who is acting as spokesperson for the new party, said the Living Sky steering committee made up of 10 people, who are not yet ready to make their names public, is fed up with business as usual in Regina.

“To a large degree [the Sask Pary and NDP] both have the same problem just from different ends,” he said.

“We firmly believe each of these parties are so beholden to their respective special interest groups that really they can’t see the road for the fog.”

Political party financing in Saskatchewan came under fire last week when a Sask Party donor list became public showing big money flowing into the party’s coffers from out-of-province corporations, municipalities and even publicly-funded charitable organizations.

“The only thing the NDP is effective at is carrying the message of the folks that fund them,” Grey said. “And the premier has been very vocal about issues pertaining to the oil industry, but precious little has been said about anything else in the province.”

The Living Sky Party, he noted, intends to do all of its fundraising at the grassroots so as to be beholden only to voters.

Grey said the makeup of the organizing group is all over the political map comprising former Sask Party, NDP, Liberal and Green Party supporters.

“Basically we’re trying to put together a coalition of folks to come up with some ideas to better represent Saskatchewan,” he said.

“That’s why a pretty far-flung group of people, think that there’s a better way of coming together and figuring out what we can do to give Saskatchewan a much better government.”

Party financing is also part of the reason why they have decided not to simply throw their support behind one of the existing centrist parties. Another part of the reason is political baggage.

“We just really felt that for a party to be really successful in Saskatchewan, we should not have any ties, formal or informal with any of the federal parties,” Grey said. “We think one of the biggest reasons why the Liberals [have failed], even though the Sask Liberal and the Liberal Party of Canada have been separate entities for some time technically, is because people tend to get confused between what’s provincial and what’s federal so we’re just worried if we align ourself to closely to a federal entity that it could actually harm what we’re trying to do.”

The Living Sky Party still has a long way to go to achieve official party status. In Saskatchewan that means getting 2500 signatures. Grey said they have just slowly started that process, but will gear up in the new year.

“Quite frankly, we think people are kind of electioned out after everything that’s gone on with the U.S. election and here in Saskatchewan as well,” he said. “So, we’re going to give a bit of a breather space, and that gives us a chance to organize as well.”

Currently the plan is to register the party by spring followed by a website, policy conventions, and the beginnings of a leadership campaign by the end of 2017. Grey said he has no plans to seek the leadership himself.