SASKATOON - The most recent Saskatchewan Party convention held in Saskatoon was a time of mixed emotions for the large audience of 650 delegates who attended.
The ongoing leadership race among the five candidates seeking the party’s top job dominated the gathering throughout. Candidates wined and dined convention delegates with hospitality suites, and lots of buttons and campaigning was in evidence.
The convention also highlighted for the winner how hard an act it will be to follow Premier Brad Wall.
The farewell tribute to Premier Wall during the Saturday afternoon session was the emotional high point for delegates at TCU Place.
The tribute included remarks from Ken Krawetz, the former deputy premier who was one of the “founding eight” MLAs of the Saskatchewan Party, from minister of education Bronwyn Eyre, and from his longtime aide Reg Downs. But the surprise star attraction was commentator and media personality Rex Murphy.
Murphy particularly singled out Wall as the only politician in Canada willing to stand up to the national consensus in speaking out in favour of the energy sector.
“The gift that Brad Wall gave to politics in Canada is that he was not ashamed to say what is actually, obviously true,” said Murphy, to applause.
In speaking to reporters afterwards Murphy explained why he taken time to come to the convention. He pointed to the personal qualities Wall brought to the role.
“He doesn’t easily give in to the governing consensus,” said Murphy. “That’s just a nice demonstration of independence of mind, and I don’t see a lot of that in politics nationally or provincially.”
Premier Wall’s own remarks were emotional as he gave a long list of thank-yous to his family, in particular his wife Tami, and to his political staff and colleagues.
Wall received standing ovations from the audience, but made clear to reporters afterwards that he thought it ought to be the other way around.
“I did get a chance to do my dream job with an amazing group of people,” Wall said. “It was hard to look at them cheering me because I really just wanted to cheer them, because they supported me and allowed me to do this.”
The tribute to Wall, which included video of past SaskParty election triumphs and policy accomplishments, made a big impact on the convention delegates in attendance and on Wall himself. The video included highlights such as the new Saskatchewan Hospital and the Children’s Hospital, as well as Wall’s staunch opposition to the BHP Billiton takeover of PotashCorp.
“It was a good reminder of the things we were able to do,” said Wall. “To the extent that the province has sort of transformed in attitude and population and economy – the people of Saskatchewan deserve that credit.”
After all the emotion of the speech by the Premier, the debate that followed between the five contenders vying for Wall’s job was notably anticlimactic.
Due to the length of the tribute to the Premier, it started some 45 minutes behind schedule. Once it did get under way, it followed a similar pattern to the two previous leadership debates held in Swift Current and in Melfort.
Questions were selected from those submitted by SaskParty members. The topics were familiar ones, with the carbon tax, health care and the budget prime issues.
Of all the candidates, Regina University MLA Tina Beaudry-Mellor was most active in challenging existing SaskParty policies throughout the debate.
Beaudry-Mellor particularly took aim at the budget delivered this spring. “We managed to anger many of our core supporters,” she said.
“Insurance industry, car dealerships, construction industry, and farmers. These are our job creators and engines of economic growth in this province.”
Beaudry-Mellor proposed pushing back the balanced budget by at least a year, and was applauded when she voiced support for reinstating the PST exemption on insurance.
Beaudry-Mellor later raised another hot issue that has seen little mention in the debates: the GTH.
In response to the question on how the party could maintain its urban seats, Beaudry-Mellor noted the response she got from voters while door-knocking during the two recent Saskatoon by-elections.
“They are concerned about the GTH, and we would like to see transparency on that,” said Beaudry-Mellor. “We may need to have a public inquiry on that issue.”
The question on ensuring success in urban seats underscored an unspoken concern of party members: whether the new leader would be able to appeal to both rural and urban voters.
Some observers have seen the race playing out along rural-urban lines with Alanna Koch and Scott Moe seen as “rural” candidates, with Tina Beaudry-Mellor and Gord Wyant seen as more “urban”, and with Ken Cheveldayoff staking out an urban-rural middle ground.
Moe, MLA for Rosthern-Shellbrook, addressed the issue head-on in his response.
“When I look over the crowd here today, you know, I don’t see people from urban Saskatchewan, and I don’t see people from rural Saskatchewan. But what I do see are people from the province of Saskatchewan,” said Moe.
He suggested the party continue commit to the vision and values it was founded upon, and “work harder than the NDP.” His response drew applause from the audience.
Another strong moment for Moe came later when the question came up on who would be better to defeat the NDP. Moe made clear he would stand up against a federally-imposed carbon tax.
“If Justin Trudeau is wondering how far I would go with that, just watch me,” he said.
In his response to the same question, Ken Cheveldayoff seemed to take aim at Alanna Koch’s unelected background in the public service.
“I think we need somebody who has elected experience in the legislature in Saskatchewan,” said Cheveldayoff. But when asked about it by reporters Cheveldayoff insisted the comment wasn’t directed at any one person.
“I’ve sat on corporate boards as well,” said Cheveldayoff. “But that’s very different than being elected and talking to stakeholders and ministry staff and people around the province.”
Koch’s time as deputy minister had also come under attack from the NDP in the legislature during the week. When asked in the media scrum, Koch suggested the NDP were more concerned about facing her as leader.
“I guess that would say maybe they’re worried about me,” said Koch. “I have nothing to worry about there, I’ve followed all the rules. I’ve taken a leave of absence. That’s the rules for the public service.”
In general, however, the debate was sorely lacking in fireworks – a common complaint of observers about all the official debates so far.
All the debates had followed a strict question-and-answer format, and while candidates did have opportunities to use interjections, there were few moments in which they really mixed it up with each other. None of the candidates appeared in the mood to take on anyone else in the latest debate.
“I think we all have to remember that we’re all colleagues on that stage, and at the end of this we all have to be pulling on the same rope,” said candidate Gord Wyant, who cited the need for the entire party to unite at the end of the process.
“The civility you saw on the stage is indicative of the strength of our party.”
Executive director Patrick Bundrock was pressed by reporters if the debate format was to blame for the lack of excitement, with repeat questions and not much interaction on stage. Bundrock insisted the format was not a problem.
“You have five great candidates talking to the same pool of voters and who probably agree on 90 per cent of the issues,” he said. Bundrock admitted, however, that the Wall tribute earlier was a hard act to follow.
“I guess it’s become real today,” Bundrock said. “I think it became real for a lot of people today.”
The question now is whether the North Battleford debate on Nov. 16 at the Dekker Centre will see heightened intensity from the candidates as the leadership race moves ever closer to the final vote on Jan. 27.
