This is not to suggest that politicians don’t work hard.
Nor is necessarily to suggest that getting elected hasn’t somehow become part of their job …. although why elections would be thought to be part of the job rather than the job interview may baffle some people.
But it is to suggest that too many politicians — especially those of the governing variety — have come to believe that getting elected is the most important thing.
Really, they are missing the point as to why they were elected — to address our most pressing needs as quickly, efficiently and effectively as they can.
At issue here is why we aren’t going to have a Saskatchewan budget right have the April 4 election.
It will almost be two months after the beginning of the new 2016-17 budget year before we see that budget.
Some might not understand why this is a big deal. Consider it this way:
Would you arrangement financing for a brand new car two months after you bought it? Or would you make sure you had the money in place before you signed on the dotted line?
That’s why budgets before the fiscal year starts are better.
Of course, there are those who are going to choose not to find fault with much of anything Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party government does.
This is a political party that took three out of every four votes in rural Saskatchewan. Unlike that car you buy before you figure out whether you can afford it or not, there’s not much buyer’s remorse after this month’s vote.
Moreover, it isn’t completely Wall’s fault that he wound up campaigning in March when he should have been putting together a budget.
That was largely due to the last October set election date chosen by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper than Saskatchewan and other provinces have to work around.
Fortunately — for both us and Wall who gets a longer term as a result — Saskatchewan’s fixed election cycle will now be moved back to the first Monday in November, starting in 2020. This will avoid future conflicts with the March budget.
But for this year, the elected 51 Sask. Party government MLAs really don’t have a legitimate excuse for taking a break.
The 2016-17 budget needs to get done. You just have to do it.
Yet, after their first caucus meeting photo op, various government MLAs found it an opportune time for a holiday.
Yes, elections are a grind.
But so are a lot of other jobs where you don’t get automatic cost-of-living raises, juicy pension plans and where you actually have to show up for work more than 12 weeks in the spring and eight weeks in the fall.
And when you think about it, it has to be galling for those who don’t have quite the same workplace flexibility to see what their MLAs are doing.
Ironically, we don’t traditionally hold spring or fall elections because it interferes with the farming community’s busiest times of the year.
Similarly, people in rural Saskatchewan retail trade know — no matter how they’ve been working — you just can’t take time off at Christmas because it’s their most crucial time of year.
Yes, you sometimes have to hire extra staff at Christmas … but you don’t usually give them the month of December off.
Yet we have a legislature that’s hired three extra MLAs. And notwithstanding the lack of a budget, they decide their first order of business is a holiday?
At the very least, perhaps these MLAs should have the good graces to not post pictures on their FaceBook account while attending Arizona Diamondback games in Phoenix.
Or better yet, they could just get back to work.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
