Mandryk: Moe, Sask. Party doing little to preserve urban foothold

Article content

It’s quickly become one of the great mysteries in Saskatchewan politics.

Why is Premier Scott Moe ignoring the cities? Or perhaps better put, why is he not doing more to preserve the Saskatchewan Party’s hard-fought urban foothold at a time when incumbent city MLAs and candidates are in deep political trouble?

While the Sask. Party has done everything to fortify its 29 rural seats, Moe, in his six-year tenure, has giving urban voters fewer and fewer reasons to vote for him and his party.

Article content

Of course, the government will argue this is not the case, and point to announcements in which our tax dollars are spilled in the cities. But even those are becoming fewer and fewer.

Consider this month, when the only government press releases related to the cities have been a low-income housing development in Saskatoon and construction beginning on the new Harbour Landing School in Regina.

The government will argue that much of what it announces benefits everyone in the province (fair enough) or that government news releases aren’t supposed to be thinly veiled political promotion (which is laughable).

However, go through the 221 news releases the government has pumped out since May and you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a dozen specifically pertaining to the cities, including a half-dozen low-income housing  projects jointly funded with the federal government.

As former Regina Coronation Park MLA Mark Docherty said before his Sask. Party was hammered in two Regina byelections last year in which Moe didn’t much campaign: ” ‘Growth that Works for Everyone.’ Does it? It hasn’t worked for everyone in Coronation Park.”

Article content

Article content

Moe and company can ill afford having city voters ask this question, given recent Insightrix polling showing the Sask. Party trailing provincewide, and getting hammered in Saskatoon and Regina.

One gets that parties return to their roots times in troubled times. The Sask. Party has always been a rural-based party.

One even gets that the policies the Sask. Party seems to think work best for them  — trespassing laws, a duplicate Marshals service to deal with rural crime and even tougher social issue policies like the pronoun bill or a tougher approach to addictions — are better received outsides the cities.

But there are other things a governing party can do to enhance a city MLA’s profile.

Strangely, you are more likely to see Last Mountain-Touchwood MLA Travis Keisig at a government announcement. (Sources close to both the NDP and the Sask. Party say Last Mountain-Touchwood, the Battlefords and possibly Saskatchewan Rivers are the only rural seats where the Sask. Party may be even remotely vulnerable.)

And even if the government can’t build a new hospital everywhere like it is now doing in Prince Albert and Yorkton, it could boost the profile of an urban backbencher by slipping a couple more into cabinet. After all, there are now a disproportionately few seven city cabinet members.

Article content

But Moe is not even doing that.

Upon cabinet minister and Prince Albert Carleton MLA Joe Hargrave’s sudden retirement, Alana Ross was passed over for cabinet in favour of Terry Jenson in rock-solid Martensville-Warman. Upon Gord Wyant’s resignation to run for mayor of Saskatoon, city backbench MLAs like Ken Chevedayoff, Lisa Lambert and David Buckingham, who are all running again, were passed over in favour of Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young.

In fact, the Sask. Party’s “Win Saskatoon” committee is led by Don Morgan and Ken Francis. Neither is running again, and Francis is from Kindersley. Given the way it’s allowed Gene Makowsky to take a beating in social services, it’s almost as if the Sask. Party has written off every riding in Regina except Christine Tell’s Wascana Plains seat.

The Sask. Party’s bet that it can sweep all 29 rural seats and win at least a few of the remaining 31 still seems a safe one.

But if the governing party falls short of its expectations come the Oct. 28 vote, the reasons will be too obvious.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here

Article content