To be clear, Premier Brad Wall thinks as a politician first — one true to his belief and true to the foremost cause of getting elected.
That sometimes means saying and doing things that not only please the masses but please the base. It also often means making highly partisan statements.
And as premier — in fact, now the longest serving premier among the current lot — Wall has not been shy about using the avails of his office to accomplish his political goals.
We saw that in the horrific judgment this spring when Wall’s communication office released unproven allegations involving a health care aide’s employment record after the worker complained about the care of seniors in a Saskatoon nursing home. Most of the charges post-dated the worker’s trip to the legislature where he registered his complaints.
We even saw it during the recent horrific forest fire situation in the north, where Wall lavished praised on La Ronge Mayor Thomas Sierzycki (who happens to be the Saskatchewan Party candidate in the north) while his government roundly ignored the concerns from La Ronge Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson about the failure to get qualified northerners fighting the fires.
How petty things sometimes become in politics was evident when the government issued a release scolding NDP Opposition leader Cam Broten for supposedly making an unannounced visit an evacuation centre in Cold Lake, Alta. — the same politicking Wall was doing. Broten had asked permission and was invited.
But let us understand that Wall is hardly the first politician to think and act like a politician.
New NDP leader Rachel Notley — daughter of NDP leader Grant Notley — approaches matters no differently.
So the clash between the new NDP Premier from Alberta and the conservative-minded Premier from Saskatchewan might have been an inevitability at their first meeting at the Premiers’ conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Both could have behaved better.
Wall’s commented before leaving: “Maybe we need to have equalization payments start flowing through the pipeline in order to finally get one approved through central Canada.” From a premier of Saskatchewan — a province that needed Ontario’s support in the equalization formula for most of its history — it was more than a little arrogant and hypocritical.
Nor did it really capture the humility of this province or Brad Wall himself.
That said, Notley did not do herself proud either by suggesting Wall was simply “showboating” or “standing in the corner throwing a tantrum.” (Long gone are the days when an NDP Saskatchewan premier like Allan Blakeney and a Progressive Conservative Alberta premier like Peter Lougheed could go to these meetings demonstrating a united front for the West.)
This is where the problems begin. And notwithstanding that Wall could have represented his province and himself better, he represented his constituents much better than Notley did. In fact, Wall represented Alberta constituents much better than Notley did.
Remember: this started as a result of a comment by Quebec premier Philippe Couillard that perhaps Alberta needed to get its house in order when it came to oilsands greenhouse gas emissions before Quebec approved an east-west pipeline.
Maybe Wall’s response wasn’t a perfect one, but Couillard’s comment was one that truly required a response of some sort.
Notley’s response that polite conversation — essentially placating Couillard’s cheap shot and appealing to the NDP-left that Thomas Mulcair will be catering to come the Oct. 19 federal vote — was far worse than Wall’s arguably over-the-top reaction.
If it is Notley’s position that Wall shouldn’t be “showboating” or “throwing a tantrum” by dictating environmental issues to Quebec and Ontario, surely Quebec and Ontario shouldn’t be dictating environment concerns to Alberta and the West.
That’s not being politically. That’s simply representing those who have elected you.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
