The leader of the Saskatchewan Progressive Conservatives was looking for potential votes from the Battlefords and area on Monday.
Ken Grey, who is himself running in Regina Walsh Acres, was in North Battleford on Monday. His plans were to spend the day not far away in Cut Knife-Turtleford campaigning with Allyson Nesdoly, the PC candidate in that area.
“We are going to do some door knocking in the Cut Knife area, where she’s from,” Grey told the News-Optimist.
Grey also confirmed that the PCs would have a candidate running in the Battlefords as well. News of that candidacy is expected to be made official in the coming days.
Afterwards Grey planned to go to Saskatoon to do some work with their Saskatoon people this week.
The PCs are among a number of smaller political parties looking to stand out and provide an alternative to the Saskatchewan Party and the New Democrats, including the Liberals, Greens, and Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan.
Grey said he got involved in the PCs “because as a conservative I couldn’t identify with any of the other options.”
He couldn’t identify with the NDP, but also thought the Sask Party was “no different to the NDP in many respects.”
“They still do a tremendous amount of intervention in the economy, they do a tremendous amount of spending, and just the fact of three balanced budgets in 13 years — obviously it led to a pretty significant deficit pre-COVID(-19). We have significant debt of almost $25 billion dollars, almost $1 billion a year to service that thing. That’s money that could be going to Saskatchewan people.”
Grey
He sees the difference between the PCs and Sask Party as simple: “To me, the Sask Party operates like a Liberal government. We’re going to operate like a Conservative.”
Specifically, Grey says the difference is they “want some financial transparency, we want some financial security, and that’s the aim that we are putting forward.”
The PC platform covers a wide range of topics but their main plank is to get out of the New West trade partnership with the other three Western provinces.
Grey says that deal requires any government in Saskatchewan — including the provincial and municipal governments and Crowns — to tender out all contracts for any infrastructure projects they have to the other three provinces.
“What we are saying is particularly in a time like COVID(-19), when we have a lot of Saskatchewan businesses struggling, that this was a perfect opportunity to try and use some of those infrastructure projects to help Saskatchewan companies. So what we are saying is there should be a Saskatchewan-first preference.”
He noted that the province has earmarked $7.5 billion towards infrastructure spending. “The ironic thing is that because of that trade agreement that money could actually flow outside of the province. We don’t think that’s right.”
Other platform planks for the PCs include reigning in government spending on vanity projects, lowering the PST and eliminating double taxation on items such as used cars and used clothing, reinstating the Potash Production Tax Credit, and initiating citizen-driven referendums.
The PCs also promote the idea of the Labour Relations Board holding certification votes for unions on a regular basis on whether they can operate as a bargaining unit, with members deciding on a yes or no vote.
“It’s all about freedom,” Grey emphasized. “I think people feel just overall that they’re losing control of their lives. And too many people, whether it’s big corporations or big unions, are controlling them and they don’t have that say anymore. So we’re trying to counterbalance that with a platform that will give that individual little bit more freedom.”
The PCs also are supporting reducing the number of MLAs to 58, support having a provincial police force that has more autonomy from Ottawa, and putting additional money to health care, including long term health and also mental health and addictions.
The PC party also supports reinstating the film tax credit. “This was not a giveaway, this was not a grant — this was a tax credit and it was based on the amount of labour costs a film might have,” said Grey.
He noted the film tax credit in Manitoba brought in approximately a billion dollars of investment to that province. “We lost out on that,” said Grey.
In this election the PC Party is putting up a serious challenge in several ridings.
Grey said the party has over 30 candidates nominated and “we hope to have 35,” he said.
That is not a full slate, but still way up from the 16 they ran in the last election.
It promises to be a hectic few weeks for the PCs until Election Day Oct. 26. Grey said this week he will be helping his candidates get their nomination papers in in time for Saturday, when nominations close. He expects to also spend much of the campaign in his own riding of Regina Walsh Acres campaigning.
Mostly, the PCs are looking to present their issues and present themselves as an alternative to two main parties that according to Grey are very much the same. “I want the people of Saskatchewan to feel confident that when we are looking at the future, that future comes through — financial transparency, financial responsibility, and not buying votes at election time.”
