Running to the right of Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party seems a can’t-lose proposition for the Saskatchewan United Party.
Some might see little difference. There are some twists.
The Sask. Party would surely take umbrage with the SUP’s call for a massive overhaul of the potash industry’s royalties ($800 million in annual royalties are expected this year) and tax exemption structure.
Hromek says an overhaul could almost generate enough revenue to make up for the SUP’s call to halve the provincial sales tax to three per cent from six per cent and eliminate the provincial gas tax (hits of $1.6 billion and $500 million, respectively, to provincial coffers).
Hromek sees it differently.
“The Sask. Party has governed for 17 years — nearly an entire generation,” Hromek said at his party’s campaign/platform launch. “But this is no longer the Sask. Party of Brad Wall.
“Scott Moe and the Sask. Party would like to make you think this election is about the Saskatchewan NDP and Justin Trudeau. In reality this election is 100 per cent about the Sask. Party and their record.”
Hromek was vague about how a party that has nominated 23 candidates would win a majority in the 61-seat Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly or influence change … although he insisted the SUP could form a more effective opposition than we’ve seen from the NDP for the past 17 years.
However, when its only requirement to exercise considerable political influence is to have enough warm bodies on the ballot to put the fear of God into Scott Moe and the Sask. Party, it might be a bit of a can’t-lose proposition for the SUP.
The SUP’s platform and its so-far nominated candidates might have a ring of familiarity to Saskatchewan political watchers.
But a quick perusal of the best-foot-forward SUP candidates’ biographies (14 of 23 are running in rural seats) suggests familiar backgrounds in agriculture, business, community and volunteer involvement, and local governance, which are common in the history of Sask. Party candidates.
That said, it’s the familiar things in the SUP platform that are most telling.
Besides the tax cuts and the potash royalty/tax increases Hromek claims we can get away with because potash is a “rare commodity” existing only in Belarus, Russia and here, the SUP would scrap the goal of net-zero carbon emissions in electrical generation and keep burning coal and natural gas.
While saying he believes in manmade climate change “to some extent,” Hromek said it is nowhere as devastating as scientists claim and argued CO2 is not a pollutant causing an excessive greenhouse effect.
In health care, Sask. United says “non-government clinics will now have the ability to build facilities and provide services to meet the demands of local communities while remaining publicly funded through government contracts.”
In education, the Sask. United Party platform calls for “supporting parents” with “opt-in” for “student’s participation in curriculum that broach controversial subjects” like sex education.
The Sask. United Party would also “remove ideology” and political biases in education, while protecting Saskatchewan’s “history and culture” by restoring historical markers, including statues, that commemorate the past and reflect our identity.”
It would also remove “discriminatory practices” and “protect gender spaces by banning biological males from women’s only spaces, including changing rooms and bathrooms.”
In short, it’s further promoting issues that the Sask. Party government either already acted upon or raised last term.
It just appears the SUP doesn’t think it has to elect a majority of candidates to make such changes happen.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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