Last week’s federal election may finally bring an end to Canadians looking down their noses at the massive flaws of American’s electoral system.
In fairness, there are big problems with a disengaged United States electorate.
What this year’s American presidential race clearly demonstrated is many U.S. voters live in an echo chamber where nonsense is repeated by partisan media commentators and on social media until it’s accepted as fact.
No doubt, this is the very thing that’s nurtured the irrationality in U.S. politics to the point where common sense has followed honesty and truth out the window.
But while one might easily point out the problem in America caused by partisan blinders, consider what’s going on in our very own backyard as it relates to Regina’s Global Transportation Hub (GTH) land deal.
The very day of the U.S. election, Saskatchewan Party government MLAs were voting to refuse to bring before the legislature the people behind the decisions that led us to pay $103,000 an acre for 204 acres valued at $10,000 to $15,000 an acre a year earlier.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Those whom you elected – many of them rural MLAs – made it their job at the legislature to ensure that you have less information and government accountability than you would have otherwise had.
Like Donald Trump, many of these elected Saskatchewan people like to claim they are not politicians… or at least, not career politicians.
But regardless of political stripe, it’s rather amazing how quickly non-politicians adapt to acting in the political interests of themselves and their party.
The NDP opposition wanted to bring before the legislative committee three former chief executive officers of the GTH and deputy ministers who were all involved in the land deal.
Instead, Sask Party government public accounts committee members Glen Hart, Larry Doke, Warren Michelson, Jennifer Campeau, Herb Cox and Randy Weekes used their majority to ensure the only ones coming before the committee would be the new GTH CEO Doug Moen (hired long after the mess) and the current Highways Ministry (who had no role in the land purchase).
This is more than wrong. It was a blatant attempt by the Sask Party to use its majority to conceal any potential embarrassing information.
Admittedly, digging up embarrassing information was what the NDP was clearly hoping to accomplish by demanding these individuals be brought forward and forced to testify before the legislative committee.
Some might argue that Sask Party and NDP committee members were both playing games. To some degree, this is true.
But the huge difference here is the opposition was trying to get the bottom of this mess and the government members were clearly trying to stop anyone from getting there.
And lest there be any doubt that this remains a mess, consider what provincial auditor Judy Ferguson stated in her June report.
Ferguson said the land was bought "at a significantly higher price and not in a fiscally responsible manner" because of a "unique board governance (that included) the active involvement of the GTH chair (who happened to be former economy minister Bill Boyd).”
From there, we have since learned that Boyd took to cabinet a proposal to sell the land that had to be rejected because the owner of the land was not known.
Finally, SaskPower in December 2013 (a time when Boyd was minister) spent $25 million to buy other GTH land, which was a huge convenience because the GTH didn’t otherwise have the money to buy the 204 acres. Boyd assigned his chief political aide to negotiate the $103,000-an-acre deal in negotiations the GTH didn’t even know about.
It sure sounds like there still are questions to be asked.
But like in the U.S. some voters may choose to see only what they want to see.
