Ah, Election Time in Saskatchewan!
October 11, 2007 | 04:03 PM
I remember the last one as if it was yesterday. But it wasn't. It was four years ago and the NDP shocked everyone, including themselves, and won a forth term to office. On the heels of SPUDCO, the 2003 election was still too close to call because Elwin Hermanson was portrayed as a Nazi by an NDP Caucus cartoon circulated throughout the ranks. As ugly and further from the truth as it was, it definitely didn't help the SaskParty.
Since then, and this is a question all voters must ask: What has the NDP accomplished? Mr. Calvert would like to think it is because of Social Democracy that the price of oil is over $70 a barrel. Worse still, he would like to think that all Saskatchewan folk are stupid enough to agree with this dribble.
All I know is that in the last two years, the private sector has finally come into its own after suffering under the worst labour, political and market conditions forced upon a province that geographically towers over the centre of North America. This has come about because not even socialists can turn their backs on black crude. Revenues from oil have not only trickled into the government purse, but in our communities as well for all of us to bask in. Rule number one in today's capitalist economy: You can't ignore the principle of supply and demand, even if you don't believe in it.
Years ago, when we thought we were all about equality and the brethren of sister and brotherhood, even though we treated our First Nations and Métis citizens to varying degrees of racism, walls were put up around us by Douglas, Blackney and Mr. Romanow.
They were sort of remodeled briefly with a new coat a paint under Devine, what with all the hot tubs and spanking new decks, but our real potential and ability to produce, export and value add were squandered because the NDP choose to get its advice from the Caledon Institute miles away in Ontario.
When you need hard work to extract resources from the ground, getting ideological advice while you sit on your butt, produces nothing other than slackers and a false sense of accomplishment. We suffered. Those, in the private sector, who struggled with family businesses and companies that service our resource sector, stayed, paid the price but ultimately triumphed by creating today's modern Saskatchewan economy.
This new economy, which the government likes to think is because of the NDP's policy handbook, was fought on the backs of many businesses that chose to stay in Saskatchewan but did so at a price, forced to tolerate high taxes, high labour union involvement and high crown corporation competition. We owe all our success to them, not the NDP.
This leaves Saskatchewan with a dilemma unheard of. At present, those family businesses and resource sector service suppliers are cashing out to multinationals. Their patience, persistence and struggle are being compensated by large corporations with head offices in London, Los Angeles, Mexico and Japan who want in on the oil and gas market.
In the end, we need a government who understands this dilemma and not the one that created it.
Comments: (4)
High taxes compared to where? Alta? What about Ontario or Quebec during the same period? What about the economic conditions that the NDP inherited? The debt accumulated by their free-spending predecessors? As much as you like to think that the NDP are just luck in their timing it wasn't all popcorn and lolypops for them. Taxes are lower now.
And you mention crowns competing in the provate sector...I like that argument. Competing agains whom? Rogers? Telus? Bell? Why not generate revenue that will stay in Saskatchewan instead? The overall crown portfolio is net-income positive by far. How to you propose to make up that revenue loss once the crowns are handcuffed in "traditional" roles and cease to make as much money? What then? Sell them? So that thousands of employees loose their jobs and are forced to relocate elsewhere. Good plan.
I hope you have a strategy for that transition. I'm not saying it can't happen but it's no small exercise. And the quality and cost of services in remote areas would be affected. Heck, cell phone coverage, Private industry giant Rogers, they sure don't serve anyone outside of Saskatoon and Regina very well. How would that improve?
Whatever government takes form in Saskatchewan will always have the unfortunate problem of existing next to Alberta and having high taxes...compared to Alberta...and "difficult" labour conditions...compared to Alberta...The party that wins my vote is the one that turns that disadvantage into an opportunity.
Posted October 16, 2007 04:10 PM
Hey, sound like some good topics for future blog posts. I look forward to watching you knock 'em down, one by one! Cheers, AW
Posted October 15, 2007 04:13 PM
Allen,
Next time I'm in Regina, I'm buying you lunch. You are the first person to respond to this, my first ever blog.
With your comments, I tend to think that political parties are not equipped to respond to what goes on outside our borders. Obviously it has everything to do with our Constitution, but in actuality, it's not meant to limit us. I always wonder why we were not at the table during NAFTA while the ag subsidy debate took place as we now witness our farm economy dwindle, forced to respond to global pressures created afar and out of our control. I want to know why Brad Wall flipped on the TILMA deal, as he has been accused of doing so. When did that debate take place? I also wonder why a province of a million people, 1/3 of the GTA in Ontario, cannot get together and tackle both what exists within our borders and outside them. We tend to the simple side of everything, and I blame our bureaucracy and the NDP, ever reliant on the politiburo for relelection, for hiding from the forces around us. I hope this election will be a turning point. In a province with the Synchrotron, the amazing feats being produced by our engineering, mining and research firms, why do we belittle our abilities with silly political campaigns?
Cheers and keep posting.
Posted October 12, 2007 05:22 PM
True, the NDP has presided over everything from the end of the Cold War, to the introduction of the Internet, to the beginning of the "war on terror".
The NDP also governed during the era of the global economic restructuring, "Globalization". Now, the provincial NDP certainly didn't create globalization, but it responded to it by reducing "barriers", cutting taxes (Vicq Commission), etc.
It would be interesting to know how the other parties would have modeled Saskatchewan during the 1990s, especially given the economic conditions the province faced during the terrible continental recession of the early '90s.
Did Saskatchewan miss the globalization boat? And if so, how?
As for the oil economy, I'd like to know where the social justice provincial NDP stands on the war in Iraq. I don't think Tommy Douglas would have suffered it silently (but then again, maybe that's another one of the accommodations you're forced to make in the era of the globalized economy).
Posted October 12, 2007 11:43 AM