So this is the way it’s going to be, eh?
After a decade of Stephen Harper Conservative government — one that was whole-heartedly endorsed by Saskatchewan federal voters who sent 12 to 13 of its 14 MPs to the government side — we clearly won’t have the same influence.
How could we?
Our only government voice will be Ralph Goodale, whose plate will be full with public safety issues that include Syrian refugees.
That’s just one MP and one federal minister from Saskatchewan.
And contrast the difference between having a Gerry Ritz from the Battlefords-Lloydminster compared with PEI Minister Lawrence MacAuley who now fills the roll for the Liberal government.
Isn’t that, in itself, a problem?
Well, it could be — especially in both deal with local issues and largely more philosophical ones.
MacAuley may still struggle with why most Western farmers — or at least, farmers producing the majority of the Western wheat and barely — did not want their product sold by a single-desk seller.
That said, this is an issue that’s been dealt with. And if the first job of a minister is to establish relationships with counterparts and stakeholders, credit MacAuley for attending the Western Canadian Agribition in Regina last week and quickly developing a rapport with Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart.
Moreover, it would seem doubtful MacAuley and the new Liberal government will have any more or less success getting the railways to move Western grain over oil than Ritz and the previous Conservative government did.
And factoring into this equation is the reality that that Stephen Harper government was so top-down-driven that individual Conservative MPs or ministers had very little impact on policy or addressing specific issues.
It could be quite possible that things will be equally bad under Trudeau’s Liberals. But let us not underestimate how much frustrated and resentful the public and stakeholders became with the Prime Minister Office’s under Harper.
However, rural Saskatchewan people and Westerners in general had far less reason to be frustrated with the Harper government because the Harper government was simply more in tune with rural and Westerner values.
It is precisely why Westerners voted Conservative. It is here where the rubber hits the road.
So how will we fare under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s direction when it comes to big policy positions? Well, so far, the results appear to be a bit mixed.
Prior to attending the country’s First Ministers conference in seven years, Premier Brad Wall made it know he wanted suspension of the Liberal promise to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by New Year’s.
After the Paris bombings (which had nothing to do with refugees) this was a popular position throughout the country. There was common sense in Wall’s argument that numbers and deadlines should not take precedent over proper screening of refugees. But did Wall or anyone offer any proof that terrorist posing as refugees in camps (presuming there are any) won’t be properly screened?
Whatever the case, credit Trudeau, Goodale and the Liberals for heeding such concerns. The deadline was pushed back to February.
However, Trudeau does seem a little tone deaf so far when it comes to Wall’s other concern — the economic costs to the oil sector if the country gets any more aggressive with the green agenda than it already is.
Wall noted some 30,000 direct energy sector jobs have already been loss (although that has much to do with oil hovering around $40 US a barrel).
That said, Wall did seem the lone voice talking about the economic impact of environmental changes.
Actually, the bigger problem might not necessarily be Trudeau, but the bigger shift that now sees an Alberta NDP government capping emissions of the oilsands, phasing out coal and adding gas taxes.
At least for a while, this appears how things are going to go.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
