The Saskatchewan election is heating up … well perhaps a tepid simmer would be more accurate.
While we are coming up on only four-weeks until the day we are to trek to the polls, it is an election seemingly devoid of passion.
Drive around our city and finding a lawn sign is an expensive proposition even at today’s low gasoline prices.
And when it comes to galvanizing issues there does not seem to be one, even in the world of social media where political rhetoric is a staple of daily posts.
Part of the problem is that the great issue is the economy.
However, in spite of what Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall, or New Democrat head Cam Broten might extol their control over the economy is at best limited.
Wall and company have shown in the past their handle on what revenues from resources will be is fleeting. The revenues of potash having been missed significantly in the all too recent past.
The current situation with oil is another case where the low prices came about to the surprise of many, with the downturn now extending farther than all but the most pessimistic were expecting.
We can blame the Wall government for missing some of the signs, but certainly he and his party are not the reason for the drop in oil prices.
And they are not to blame for a Chinese economy slowing down to a snail’s pace. They had been the giant devouring steel, copper and a host of other commodities, carrying strength in the overall ecomony on its shoulders.
Back at a more reasonable growth rate, prices tumbled.
When Saudi Arabia started to let the tap run on low cost oil, the skids were fully on the economy worldwide, and Canada, and Saskatchewan are not in a vacuum in that regard.
That may be a somewhat simplistic explanation of a complex world economy, but they are certainly key driving factors.
While none of the political parties can affect change in a significant way to revitalize the current situation in isolation of world events, there is a question we should be asking in the next four weeks of our candidates; what will you do to offset the situation should oil remain low?
Certainly signals from the Saudis have been that they can survive the low prices better than most because they are low cost producers. They have gone as far as to suggest high-cost producers, such as Canada’s oilsands production, should just get out of the market because they can’t turn profits under the current price structure.
That leaves a rather fundamental question, what do we in Saskatchewan and Alberta do if the Saudis keep the tap open?
Free trade has become the mantra of governments for years now, with the idea central to it that countries that do the best job of production should have unfettered access to all markets.
That philosophy has merit of course, until we find ourselves in a situation like the one with oil, and suddenly it is less palatable.
But at this point, philosophies aside, what will Wall and Broten do if oil remains low, and the world economy sluggish?
How deep, and often can the province run deficits before Wall’s mantra of maintaining a balanced budget becomes only a distant buzz?
What can Broten offer that is new and different to buffer our province?
This election may be slow to get rolling, but the key issue is there, if voters only demand a closer look at policies for the future.
