Maybe NDP leadership hopefuls should address Saskatchewan Party issues and Sask. Party leadership candidates should address NDP policies.
It might be the only way to get either side to hold meaningful debates during their simultaneous leadership contests.
This is not to say what either side is promoting doesn’t have any validity.
Consider the Sask. Party leadership candidates’ uniform, across-the-board condemnation of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s income tax changes impacting small business people and farmers who are incorporated.
It’s made grand fodder for the Sask. Party leadership hopefuls — especially since this is such a big issue for both Premier Brad Wall and federal Conservative Opposition leader Andrew Scheer who have been hammering on it for weeks now.
Both Alanna Koch and Scott Moe have especially embraced the issue. Go to their websites and one might mistakenly think that this is a federal Conservative leadership race.
Moe has even adopted some of Wall’s slogans that a tractor cab is not a tax shelter.
To be clear, Sask. Party candidates should be opposing this issue on behalf of rural farmers and small business people in the province as a whole.
It’s not a big federal revenue raiser in the context of the national government budget. And even if it was designed to balance out unfairness, it may be creating more problems than it’s solving.
That said, it’s also becoming about the only issue that provincial Sask. Party leaders are talking about.
So predominate has been this issue in the Sask. Party race that it appears Gord Wyant had to make it known he was severing his ties with the federal Liberal party. However in doing so, Wyant made the valid point that no “Sask. Party” leader should have ties to any federal party if it aspires to lead a provincial party that has no federal party affiliation.
That a single issue all candidates seem to agree on has hijacked the contest that will determine who is the next Premier is a tad bizarre.
But perhaps even more bizarre is the fact that it just hasn’t come up at all in the two-person Saskatchewan NDP leadership race between Ryan Meili and Trent Wotherspoon.
Really, how could an issue that so dominates one party’s leadership race not even be mentioned in another party’s simultaneous leadership race?
Well, this is sadly the case more often than not, because candidates running for party leadership need to appeal to their own members rather that provincial voters as a whole.
Really, it’s why there’s so little meaningful policy debate in these forums.
On the NDP side, Meili has talked about a $15 an hour minimum wage and ending corporate and union donations to political parties. One suspects Trent Wotherspoon wholeheartedly agrees, but Wotherspoon has so far made no major policy announcements.
On the Sask. Party side, Wyant has talked about an inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub and Tina Beaudry-Mellor and Ken Cheveldayoff have agreed.
Meanwhile, Cheveldayoff has promoted the idea of reinstating the PST exemption on insurance and Wyant and Beaudy-Mellor concur.
Otherwise, the only other policy talk emerging is Cheveldayoff’s talk about downsizing the civil service, Scott Moe pledging to create a new Ministry for International Trade and Export and Beaudry-Mellor advocating a “smart social investment plan” and “Housing First plan.”
Sadly, this is what has passed for policy debate to this point.
Meanwhile, other arguably more critical issues like how to deal with Saskatchewan’s $22-billion public debt, what social, health and education services should be highlighted after the 2017-18 budget or how to re-stimulate a Saskatchewan economy suffering from stagnant job growth aren’t really being discussed by leadership hopefuls from either party.
Maybe all leadership hopefuls should be required to address these critical issues.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
