No good can come from this policy. The Saskatchewan Party’s first order of business should be to scrap it … or at least politely back away.
No good can come from this policy. The Saskatchewan Party’s first order of business should be to scrap it … or at least politely back away.
Moe’s new “No. 1 priority” — which he announced the day after the leaders’ debate, presumably around the night the less-than-accurate election opinion polling was offering him some less-than-flattering news — was always pure politics.
Announced at former Regina-Wascana Plains MLA Christine Tell’s campaign headquarters, this hastily developed, unneeded nonsense wasn’t even in the Sask. Party platform. It was a blatant attempt to ward off vote-splitting by the Saskatchewan United Party (SUP). Provincewide, the SUP received 17,899 votes — behind the NDP everywhere.
That should be a message to Moe and the Sask. Party that pandering to those who are pushing culture wars just isn’t a great strategy for a government that needs to governing from the centre on bread-and-butter issues like health and education.
Perhaps the real first order of business for the government should be accountability for last term’s wasting of tax dollars on useless court challenges and bad laws like Bill 137, which were largely about scoring political points. Hopefully, we will see a new justice minister and Attorney General with a better grasp of why following quality, high-paid legal advice makes sense.
One gets that any government — especially a Scott Moe government — doesn’t want to admit mistakes. And this was an election promise.
But it would be reasonably easy to simply downgrade this “priority” to a directive stating “nothing is more important than protecting children” and “schools will be expected to safeguard all vulnerable children in change rooms and elsewhere on school property while respecting differences.”
Heaven knows, protecting vulnerable children in Saskatchewan is laudable. The reality, however, is that the most vulnerable children are transgender. And a government-sanctioned policy like the one the Sask. Party is contemplating is a licence to bully vulnerable kids.
To this day, there has only been highly suspicious evidence that any “male at birth” child in a Saskatchewan school was using a girls’ change room — let alone insisting to do so. No one was threatened … or even placed in an uncomfortable situation.
This has always been a fabricated problem suspiciously advanced by an agenda-based right-wing “news” organization in the middle of a campaign.
And if politics — bad politics — weren’t reason enough to nix it, the fact that it’s simply unenforceable is surely reason enough. If this goes ahead, Moe or someone else in government will have to explain how they intend to determine which child is “biologically male” and which isn’t.
But there’s at least one valid political reason it would be wise for the Sask. Party to graciously back away from this policy: If they don’t, the province’s 30th legislature will be open warfare from the start.
We now know that the children cited in the original story were the children of an NDP candidate. No politician’s child should ever be dragged into politics.
And the NDP are making no bones that they feel the Sask. Party campaign was working in unison with the Western Standard to hurt a candidate and the candidate’s already vulnerable kids.
It an already divided legislature, this has quickly become a very personal issue.
For the Sask. Party to aggressively bully through another policy like this, for no valid reason, would obviously be seen as spiteful and nasty. It would be a statement that the Sask. Party has learned nothing.
They need to use this time to take a breath, take stock and formulate an exit strategy from this very, very bad election promise.
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