Mandryk: Governing party built for politicking runs into policy glitch

It does seem Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe has it backwards: You are supposed to govern for four years and campaign for four weeks in an attempt to get re-elected.

Instead, Moe’s Sask. Party government has been politicking for most of the last four years and now appears to be trying to stuff as much policy as it can into a 27-day campaign.

This is not to say that policies in the Sask. Party platform aren’t good or needed: income tax reductions, graduate retention programs, an active families benefit, programs to make housing more affordable, improved health services for women, including cervical cancer screening replacing Pap tests, support for people with disabilities and diabetes.

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They are good ideas. Moe has clearly run into problems selling them.

For example, Monday’s announcement of a $20,000 tax credit to families undergoing costly in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments was met with the obvious question of why the government didn’t implement this policy during the last four years, given that NDP MLA Aleana Young raised it almost daily in legislative petitions.

Some Sask. Party promises could have have been implemented already. Others are slightly tweaked versions of existing policies. (This week’s Sask. Party announcement on insulin came almost exactly four years to the day after the Sask. Party’s 2020 campaign announcement of $18.7 million for reducing costs for diabetics.)

Why aren’t these needed policies already in place?

It’s not news that this government hasn’t exactly been sweating the boring, laborious policy stuff. It prefers to politick. Under Moe, that’s always been the way.

From his very first leadership pronouncement six years ago to “just watch me” take on Justin Trudeau, Moe has been politics first.

There was a slight reprieve from the ceaseless politicking during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. But once past the worst of it and the discomfort of urging people to get vaccinated, Moe was back to politicking: subtle encouragement of the Freedom Convoy; fighting with Trudeau over the carbon tax; the “economic sovereignty” meetings that led to the Saskatchewan First Act; the harmful politics of Bill 137 (the Parents’ Rights Act to address a virtually non-existent problem of pronouns); and then down more rabbit holes in hot pursuit of votes.

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What if the Sask. Party government had dedicated the same energy to implementing those platform policies it’s now advocating in its campaign?

One can argue that all of this politicking for four years is already paying dividends — especially in its bedrock rural seats, where the Sask. Party seems poised to reap the benefits of convincing people it is the only solution to the real problems, which are Trudeau, the carbon tax and the encroachment of left-wing values.

It can’t be overstated: The Sask. Party doesn’t have to do much to win.

That said, it’s clear that problems have cropped up in this Sask. Party campaign, in which the strategy has been to switch from relentless politics to modest policies and the message of hope and optimism.

After building his government around partisan ministers like Jeremy Harrison, Jeremy Cockrill and Bronwyn Eyre — all of whom have run into their own credibility issues — Moe now has a shortage of people who can sell that upbeat “strong economy, bright future” message.

The political ministers have been nearly invisible, so Moe has been left to sell the campaign message. This is not easy with no Trudeau to fight in a provincial campaign. It’s not been easy when Moe, alone, has to now account for his government’s own record and explain what it means to “expand on what is working” in health care.

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And it’s surely not easy when selling these policies has been interrupted by near-daily scandals, like Moe having to justify why he is allowing Saskatoon Westview MLA and candidate David Buckingham to remain on the Sask. Party ticket after uttering vile, racist slurs.

All of this makes it tough to be the party of policy and optimism.

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

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