About the last thing either the province or the Saskatchewan Party need right now is more division.
While one might think tough economic times bring people together, they sometimes really don’t.
Tough economic times mean tough choices for a provincial government that’s already talking about “transformational change.”
Exactly what the government means by “transformational change” is anyone’s guess at this point, but most will recognize it likely means more bickering over keeping what we already enjoy.
This takes us to the latest indication of division, which is a poll done by Mainstreet Research for Postmedia (the owner of two major daily newspapers).
The survey shows that the Saskatchewan Party still has a commanding 53 per cent of the popular vote provincewide, which is the kind of public support that most other governing parties can only dream of. Remember: This is the beginning of the third term of a government that achieved the near impossible of getting that third term. Only Co-operative Commonwealth Federation or NDP governments had accomplished that in the past century.
What the survey shows, however, is that Premier Brad Wall’s government is now running behind the NDP in Regina where New Democrats have 52 per cent support among divided votes, compared with 39 per cent for the Saskatchewan Party.
Again, there is obviously no need for Wall and the Saskatchewan Party to hit the panic button yet.
Regina only represents a mere 11 of the province’s 61 seats. At 39 per cent, were an election held today, the Saskatchewan Party would still likely win between three to five of those Regina seats (depending on how the vote split worked).
Moreover, the Saskatchewan Party is still running ahead in Saskatoon, which has 14 seats, and far, far ahead in 30 rural seats.
Still, it’s hard to ignore both the Saskatchewan Party’s overall provincewide support is down from the 60 per cent it received in the April 4 vote or the even more dramatic drop in Regina.
Even harder to ignore is the likely reasons behind it, or those deepening divisions we have seen in Saskatchewan.
This has been a summer of discontent for Wall’s forces that really began with the Provincial Auditor’s report on both the Regina by-pass and Global Transportation Hub that illustrated highly questionable management practices of both former highways minister Nancy Heppner and former GTH/economy minister Bill Boyd (but it should be noted that by no small coincidence, both have now left Wall’s cabinet.)
Added to the mix is the party’s handling of the Husky pipeline spill into the North Saskatchewan River and the racial tensions with First Nations that, sometimes unfairly, are blamed on the government of the day.
Now, throw in the talk of privatizing SaskTel, which is something Wall said he would consider if he received an offer that was large enough to eliminate the operating debt that’s now pegged at $4.1 billion.
This cuts closer in Regina, where SaskTel’s head office and most of its jobs are located.
It’s also another thing that has brought home the fiscal reality for a lot more people… and perhaps a sense that Wall and his Saskatchewan Party government weren’t nearly as clear with the public about what they had in mind as they should have been.
Finally, another social issue in play seems to be Don McMorris’s recent charge for drunk driving.
With a Mainstreet poll stating that 80 per cent of people have likely driven drunk, this isn’t as divisive an issue as perhaps it should be.
What’s more troubling for the Saskatchewan Party in this poll is that 68 per cent of people suggested McMorris shouldn’t run again.
The survey results also showed that one in every five people in this province still feel that it’s okay to drive drunk if it’s only for a short distance.
This would seem to suggest another clear division between urban and rural people.
It may be one more divide in a province that’s showing a lot of signs of division… which is never a good thing for a government.
