This may be Saskatchewan's summer of the storm, but Premier Brad Wall still seems to be enjoying the sunshine.
Closing in on five years in power - a time governments tend to run into trouble - there isn't much to indicate that Wall's popularity is clouding over.
So what's the secret to his success? Well, it appears to be a number of factors. Let us explore today.
First and foremost is the on-going economic success.
Sure, the big contracts handed out to favoured health care unions like the nurses and the unprecedented infrastructure spending is catching up to Saskatchewan's budget and 2012-13 may be problematic with oil below predictions and slumming potash sales.
But contrary to the insistence of some NDP leadership hopefuls, jobs are up - including in construction, Certainly, the province's four biggest cities plus Yorkton, Estevan, Weyburn don't seem to be seeing any economic slowdown.
It also helps that this hot, humid - and, yes, occasionally stormy - summer seems to be producing a better-than-average crop. Saskatchewan may be an oil/potash province, but nothing is better for the economy and the provincial psyche than a good crop.
Admittedly, lay-offs of recently imported Irish workers in the potash mine construction do not bode well for our economic direction. Nor is doing much to enhance Wall's credibility, given his hands-on involvement in recruiting workers. And messing with the province's successful immigration program that was just starting to pay dividends wasn't a particularly wise choice.
However, Brad Wall has not made all that many unwise choices, which has been another key to his success.
Sure, the silly $2-billion potash revenue projections in 2009 and the troubling projections this year were unwise budgeting. We continue to spend more than we should. There may yet be consequences to things like building a new stadium.
But Saskatchewan budgets have been closer to being balanced than in other provinces, suggesting that Wall's mistakes have so far been affordable ones. And excluding the debacle involving the Carlton Trail-St. Peter's College merger and the late MLA Serge LeClerc, there hasn't been a whole lot of political embarrassment emerging from his government. Voters can be exceedingly forgiving under such circumstances.
Third, while Wall and his Sask. Party government do seem to be led around by the nose by the potash and oil industries, the Premier has astutely figured out that this province is now testing its free-enterprise wings. (It has also helped immensely, that Wall didn't have to change the potash and oil royalty policies from the previous NDP government that paved the way for these recent expansions. Evidently, the NDP also figured out, before it left office, that the resource engine was the driving the Saskatchewan economy.)
Yes, Wall has taken it a step further to the right by going after the unions - both in the public and private sector - through legislative changes. But given that most people don't work in a union shop and aren't necessarily affected by labour law changes, that was mostly proven to be a politically astute move.
Or at the very least, Wall is proving to be more politically astute than his NDP predecessors.
We are seeing improvements in wait list times from a conservative premier who isn't supposed to understand public health care. The working poor have benefited from income tax changes and seniors have benefited from on-going low prescription drugs. And this government's efforts to assist the disabled are truly worth the accolades they have received.
Add to this the fact that the NDP and Liberals aren't really providing voters with viable alternatives and it means one thing:
Even as some storm clouds mount, the sun still seems to be shining on Brad Wall.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 15 years.
