WEYBURN – Members of the new Weyburn-Bengough riding association for the Saskatchewan United Party held a town hall meeting in Weyburn on Sunday afternoon, with the express hope of being the new right-wing alternative on voting day this fall.
The town hall was held at the T.C. Douglas Centre, and deputy party leader Jon Hromek was part of the panel on stage, along with Dan Stasko, executive director for the party; Randy Schiller, director of policy, and riding association members Chris Stevens, president; Andrew Cey, vice-president; secretary Barb Helfrick, and treasurer Leslie Richards.
Deputy leader Hromek was the SUP candidate in the Lumsden-Morse byelection held over the summer, and he came in second place, taking 22.69 per cent of the votes.
The party has one sitting MLA, Nadine Wilson for the riding of Saskatchewan Rivers, and she is the party leader. She was first elected in 2007 with the Sask Party, became an independent in September of 2021, and when the party was registered in November of 2022, she became its first leader.
Stevens noted that a big issue in the Lumsden-Morse byelection was an action by Planned Parenthood into the schools, which was locally very controversial. With a strong second-place showing in the vote, Stevens noted that within two weeks, the Moe government introduced the parental rights bill for schools, directly a result of this showing by a brand new party that beat out the NDP in the polls.
He explained their platform will include a push to ensure Sask First remains a priority, with one goal to remove private interest groups that do not hold to putting this province first, and another goal to restore accountability for the MLA.
They would become the first party to make it possible for the local riding association to recall an MLA if he or she does not promote the priorities of constituents in the Legislature; currently, in the other parties in the House, only the party can discipline or recall an MLA, not the local riding association.
Stevens also pointed out that the membership of the party will shape the party policy, with a policy convention to be held to ratify the policies put forward by the membership of the various riding associations.
Richards raised issues she has with the education system, noting she is currently home-schooling her kids. For a student who attends from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in a public school, she estimates the students spend about 17,280 hours away from their parents in the classroom.
“That’s a lot,” she said. “We need to be aware of the input coming to our kids. There are kids graduating who are functionally illiterate.”
Helfrick said it’s not the same today for kids going to school as when she went to school. “People have been so complacent without much interaction to what’s going on,” she said.
With the funding announcement for education announced by Moe, she commented, “How is throwing money at the problem going to solve any issues?”
Richards added the question that the STF, currently in a labour dispute with the province, has not put forward any plans for how they will address graduation rates, as one example of an issue in education.
“Classroom complexity is real, but how will that money be allocated? I’m not against education, but how is the money being spent?” she asked.
One audience member noted about the only way he can find out what his children are being taught is to home-school them, and for himself (and many others), this isn’t a viable option.
When an audience member asked how they are going to effect any real change in the government, Helfrick answered, “If enough people stand up to make them accountable, it makes a difference.”
The young woman who asked this last question asked the panel again, “So what are you going to do as a party … what are the concrete steps you are going to take?”
Schiller turned the question back to her, and the audience, “What are you going to do?”
Richards said the steps they are taking include getting the information out about what is going on, to have engagement with the public to get a policy shaped together, and then to get more candidates to win a seat in the Legislature.
Hromek, who arrived partway through the meeting, was asked how it was possible to make any real change in the system, which is established.
He noted that the premier and the cabinet ministers “are actually very powerful. They have the opportunity to make changes, if they have the stomach for it.”
When it was pointed out that they are actively not making any positive changes in how things are done, Hromek replied that, for example in relation to carbon emissions and the net zero goal of the federal government the premier could come right out and defy the whole goal of net zero emissions, and could drop the provincial carbon tax on fuel, about 15 cents a litre currently, but so far, he hasn’t.
“I do think we have a government that’s been in power for a very long time … now it’s been 16 years of status quo, when you’re not held accountable. There’s not even a real opposition, so why would you change?” he asked.
Hromek noted that fighting against the carbon tax, as the Moe government is doing, will fail every time, because the federal government has the right to levy whatever taxes they want. What they should be doing is challenging the premise the tax is based on, namely take the feds to court on the concept that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. If that was struck down, then there is no basis for a carbon tax to be levied.
The Sask United Party has a riding association for Weyburn-Bengough, and they are currently in a search for a suitable candidate to run in the upcoming provincial election.
