Saskatchewan pre-election promises have been more fruitful for NDP Leader Carla Beck than Premier Scott Moe.
We could get an election call any day now, having entered the window of a possible 27- to 34-day campaign, concluding with an Oct. 28 vote.
You can be forgiven if you feel like it has been going on for a month already. Essentially, it has. (Expect the actual election call to come around Oct. 1. Governments like as short a campaign as possible.)
The latest of many NDP pre-election commitments were last week’s call to “retool the province’s existing procurement Crown, SaskBuilds, to ensure that Saskatchewan workers and businesses are put first for public contracts” and making $40,000 loans available to new businesses to improve property for commercial purposes, buy equipment or renovate tenant properties.
If one didn’t know better, one might suspect the NDP was going for the right-wing vote. At least there’s news in that.
By contrast, the Sask. Party government pumped out 28 news releases last week — many of them thinly veiled propaganda on the glorious wonders of the Saskatchewan economy. It’s been all hard hats and shovels-in-hand for Premier Scott Moe … albeit, mostly related to things half-built, built by someone else or to be built sometime down the road.
One announcement last week was actually a five-month-old budget announcement to “invest $1.3 million to improve facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities.”
Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky, sometimes too honest for his own good, admitted one reason for the re-announcement was that it didn’t get much attention at budget time. Perhaps it was just a happy coincidence that it was in Saskatoon, where former Sask. Party candidate Rylund Hunter, who spoke at the event, just happens to be board chair of Autism Services of Saskatoon.
But for all the taxpayer-funded advantage the Sask. Party has had in its lightly-cloaked political government announcements, Moe hasn’t fared as well as his counterpart in this pre-election campaign.
For starters, almost every time Moe has shown up at one of his own pre-election events, he’s had to face questions about other matters ranging from whatever Beck announced to his latest four-percentage-point decline in the Angus Reid Institute poll on the most popular premier, to the latest horror story emerging from Legacy Christian Academy (now rebranded as Valour Academy) and the most recent former Sask. Party MLAs bolting to run for the Saskatchewan United Party.
But perhaps the Sask. Party has been using this pre-campaign time more efficiently than some may assume.
For starters, it might be unwise for a governing party to make too much of a pre-campaign splash.
After all, there is already growing cynicism about the government taking advantage of its public tax resources to campaign for its less-than-newsworthy “announcements.”
So instead, the Sask. Party has opted for these not-so-subtle reminders of what the government thinks it has accomplished, knowing that the real battle for public attention will begin after the writs are dropped in the 61 ridings (again, likely in a week).
By contrast, Leader Carla Beck and the NDP are a less-known commodity and arguably need more time get their message out to the public.
However, the critical questions are: Will much of anything the NDP has said in this pre-writ period still resonate by Oct. 28? Or: Will it be overtaken by a bigger splash that the Sask. Party might make during the campaign?
Critical to making that big splash is ensuring that someone isn’t creating splashes around you.
In that regard, the Sask. Party has done a little pre-campaign damage control by revealing which of its candidates have had drunk driving convictions. The list includes Sean Wilson (Canora-Pelly), Chris Beaudry (Kelvington-Wadena), James Thorsteinson (Cut Knife-Turtleford), Terry Jenson (Warman, recently elevated to Minister of SaskBuilds and Procurement) and, of course, Moe.
The other advantage the pre-election period provides is the opportunity for damage control. And it’s far better for a party that has vetted its candidates to disclose the bad news itself then allow its opponents to disclose it during the campaign.
So perhaps both of Saskatchewan’s major combatants have used this pre-writ period as best as they could.
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