The SaskParty leadership race is in full swing and I, originally, felt there wasn’t anyone within caucus that could succeed Brad Wall and reach the Saskatchewan people the way he did with charisma and the matter-of-fact approach that, for the most part, was received well by all of us. I have changed my mind now that Scott Moe has entered the fray. I didn’t even know who Scott was until very recently. After spending part of an afternoon with him, I remarked to someone that he had leadership qualities that could resonate with Saskatchewan folks if given an opportunity. He tells it like it is, but does so with respect. His presence is that of a leader. He’s very up to speed on the environment file, which is going to be a crucial topic for all of us if our economy is going to survive. He seems to have a decent relationship with the federal Liberals, yet still is, vehemently, opposed to the carbon tax. He may be able to bridge the gap with them on the issue. He’d be my choice. I hope he can get his message out in a way that is understood. Don’t rely on media as fact. Do your own homework. Go to the individual pages of each leadership hopeful. Ask questions. Don’t assume a news story is true.
I realize it’s wrong to say racism doesn’t exist; but in the case of black people in the United States, I am of the belief more and more that it is way overblown by media. There are a smattering of available examples that come from well educated black people available online if you look hard enough for them and they make a lot of sense. I don’t know how old the interview is, but Morgan Freeman was on 60 Minutes years ago and he says, “I don’t want a Black History month. Stop talking about racism. I am going to stop calling you a White Man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a Black Man.” Mike Wallace, who was interviewing Freeman at the time, admitted he wouldn’t want a Jewish History month. It’s almost too easy if you think about it. In a separate interview, Freeman says racism is just an excuse for people. He pointed at the black interviewer and back at himself and said, “See, we are examples of what can be achieved if you really want it.” Freeman says when racism occurs, it’s important to call it out. But, making a greater issue out of it than what it really is doesn’t help minorities at all.
Here’s something to keep in mind as a viewer and reader: media companies are struggling to attract and maintain customers in this day and age of cord cutting and internet reading. They need to keep people interested in their narrative and racism is a big trigger for people everywhere. Smaller centres, like Yorkton, are always going to have a place because they provide an invaluable service as far as keeping people up to date on current local events and issues. On the national scale, it’s easy to tune out the average, run-of-the-mill news piece. But, a story criticizing Melania Trump’s shoes as she tours flood ravaged Texas gets people engaged no matter your opinion on it.
You really have to hand it to our federal Liberal government. They decided paying money to fight Omar Khadr in court wasn’t worth it and they wanted to do us taxpayers a favour by saving us the expense of a legal battle, so they cut the guy a cheque for $10.5m instead. Of course, their plan wasn’t even to tell us taxpayers what they did. What happened, was a Liberal somewhere in the upper ranks of their hierarchy decided to leak this tidbit to the media. Presumably, the leak was done because someone (rightfully so) felt we needed to know. Now, the Liberal government has confirmed they are upset about the leak so they’ve launched an investigation into finding out the rascal who ratted them out. Not worth spending money to fight Khadr, but they sure don’t mind spending our money to find out who notified Canadians what government was doing with our taxes. Don’t we have a right to know anyways? I’m sure legalese says ‘settlements are confidential’, but when it’s my money I think I am entitled to know where it went.
Speaking of our Liberal government, I don’t usually promote Chamber events in my column but if you are a small business owner and not a fat cat tax cheat like Bill Morneau is suggesting you are, then you really need to make sure you attend the luncheon this Thursday at the Painted Hand Casino. Call the Chamber office for details.
Last week, I admitted I was wrong on the Saskatchewan Roughriders and this week I’ll admit wrong again on Darian Durant. He looks finished. Sad. The degrading comments about him on social media are also very disappointing. Durant was a driving force of success for a franchise that has had precious little of it in the 100+ years of operation and it seems, relatively, unappreciated to me. If the Riders were the Dallas Cowboys and had a whole host of great players lead them to titles, then I’d be a bit more understanding of it all.
Nice person mentions this week: Debbie Ottenbreit, Tracey Lang, Thelma Raczynski, Leanna Campbell, and Tanner McCall.
