As of today, the provincial election is just 53 days away, an election that was supposed to be held in the fall, yet you’d never know we are less than two months from the polls.
Sure, there is an occasional Sask Party attack ad on TV trying to associate the current NDP with a government we haven’t seen in almost a decade and an op-ed here and there by pundits such as the Leader-Post’s Murray Mandryk, but that’s about it.
Cam Broten, the leader of the Official Opposition, was only nominated last week as the candidate in Saskatoon-Westview.
Are we still feeling federal election fatigue? Is the coronation of Brad Wall such a foregone conclusion that the opposition just isn’t going to put up a fight? Has the Saskatchewan Party done a good enough job to warrant voter complacency?
It is like we just don’t care, but the fact of the matter is, this election is important. The current government was given the best of times to work with and yet the premier just announced he will once again be running deficits.
Where is the rainy day fund that any sensible government would have established during boom times?
As we head into the campaign, assuming there is a campaign to come, we must ask ourselves, who has benefitted from the preceding years of prosperity and who is going to pay for them in the coming hard times?
This editorial is not necessarily a call for a change in government. We are not advocating one way or another. It is a rallying cry for people to wake up and start caring about this election, though.
Every government eventually wears out its welcome. Has the Saskatchewan Party’s time come, or do they have another four years in them? If we are going to give them another chance, however, it should not be by default, they should have to prove they deserve it.
They have some tough questions to answer.
Why, for example, did they pay three times the government’s own appraised value for land around the Regina Global Transportation Hub (GTH)?
What is the connection between Bill Boyd, now the economy minister, and the people who made millions on that questionable land deal?
Why has LEAN, the government’s controversial health care management system so far cost taxpayers $1,511 for every one dollar it has saved according to a study by Dr. Mark Lemstra?
Why has the cost of the Regina bypass skyrocketed and, more broadly, why is the Sask Party so committed to public-private partnerships (P3) despite growing evidence they benefit the private more than the public?
Why is the government refusing to produce a budget before the election?
All of this also begs the question, is there another political party in Saskatchewan fit to govern?
These issues have been teed up for the opposition like shiny new golf balls. Why are they not driving them down the fairway?
Elections matter. It is time for voters to start caring about this one.
