If nothing else, the dysfunction on the right in Alberta should teach us the value of a good, strong opposition.
Some will be inclined to blame current NDP Premier Rachel Notley for that province’s current economic and budgetary mess.
Others will note that former Progressive Conservative premiers Ed Stelmach, Alison, Redford, Richard Reed and Jim Prentice also presided over growing Alberta debt and a toughening oil economy.
Whatever the case, both Alberta governments have demonstrated why that province would have been far better if it had of had a stronger, more unified opposition.
Even for governments in booming times, a small, weak opposition incapable of holding government’s feet to the fire is problematic.
Interestingly, Saskatchewan developed a similar problem during its boom times.
The benefit of our first-past-the-post system is that it eliminates minority governments, offering clarity it governance direction.
The bad news is that also lessens the chance of solid opposition, because it takes a smaller percentage of the vote to form a big, less accountable government.
For example, with 62 per cent of the popular vote in 2016 election, Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party (a coalition of the old Saskatchewan PCs and Liberals) garnered 80 per cent of the seats in the assembly.
Of course, voters are always right, but that doesn’t mean that they vote in a system that always perfectly reflects their intent.
And most Saskatchewan voters can likely agree that a small, ineffective opposition during most of the past decade hasn’t exactly done a very good job of holding the Wall government in check.
Perhaps this is where spending on the Global Transportation Hub, the Regina bypass and large debt now come into play. Some will even argue that closing down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company is something no government would consider doing if there was any risk that it loses power by doing so.
But do rural Saskatchewan voters have any viable alternative right now?
This takes us to the NDP leadership a year from now and its first candidate, Saskatoon Meewasin MLA Ryan Meili.
With little fanfare on the last day of the spring sitting, Meili announced his intentions to run for leadership before a handful of reporters.
Of course, this came as a surprising to no one.
Having run twice before for the NDP leadership in 2009 and falling just 44 votes shy of beating previous NDP leader Cam Broten in 2013, it was evident that this was Meili’s plan since he declared his plans to run for the Saskatoon seat.
Let us be clear that putting up one’s good name in the democratic process is still a very honourable thing.
In fact, even those that don’t support the NDP, or any political party, should adopt a more-the-merrier approach to this or any other party leadership.
Healthy leadership races make for healthier parties. And if there is one thing Saskatchewan needs right now, it’s likely a healthy alternative to keep government honest.
Of course, this is not to suggest that the Saskatoon doctor, who has put his medical career on hold for a while, doesn’t have a lot of qualities that would make him a good leader.
What is clear, however, is that Meili is considerably left of past NDP leaders. This is a party that is already disconnected to both the business community and rural Saskatchewan. Moving further to the left likely isn’t going to be helpful to anyone other than Brad Wall and the Sask. Party.
A wide variety of NDP leadership hopefuls that would open up the party to more people would be best for most everyone.
After all, we’ve seen the problems of having a dysfunctional opposition in Alberta.
We’ve likely seen the same problem here in Saskatchewan.
