Scott Moe: Bringing Out the Worst In Us Since 2018

The decline is remarkable and unequivocal. It's also reversible, if we can get motivated.

As I watched the news stories on the Regina Police Service dismantling yet another tent city of vulnerable Saskatchewan residents, I thought if there was one f**king leader within a 200 mile radius of Regina, none of this would be happening.

It’s a disgrace.

If there was a true leader at any level of government in Saskatchewan, the situation with the tent city outside Regina’s city hall would have been handled a long time ago. A leader would have stepped up and said something to his or her counterparts like, “Hey, nobody can or is going to fix this but us, so let’s find a solution because people are suffering and frankly, we all look pretty stupid right now.”

Alas, no.

Which got me thinking about the adage ‘tone is set at the top’.

That saying’s foundation was laid at the turn of the 21st century, when rumors of sleazy dealings in the financial industry were wafting from every Wall Street nook and cranny. After a series of shocking bankruptcies - the most prominent involving the energy trading firm Enron - the United States Congress managed the bipartisan passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in July of 2002.

SOX requires publicly traded companies to adopt internal procedures for ensuring accuracy of their financial statements, including by making the CEO and CFO personally responsible for the accuracy, documentation, and submission of the financial reports and internal control structure.

The simple premise is that an organization’s tone - ideally, rooted in sound ethics and integrity - is created at the top by its leaders’ directives, actions, and behaviour (AKA code of conduct), because leaders have a significant influence on their organization’s culture and atmosphere.

Pretty sure my Grandma used to call that “setting a good example”.

Good leaders positively define the values, expectations, and norms that guide how the people they’re leading interact with each other, creating a ripple effect that cascades downward, shaping attitudes, habits, and behaviors.

Leaders who demonstrate favoritism or engage in discriminatory practices in their organizations create toxic environments rife with resentment and division… you know, exactly like the current cesspool of resentment and division between rural and urban Saskatchewan residents, stoked regularly by the Sask Party.

Scott Moe and the Sask Party are the absolute best at bringing out the worst in us - the worst in Saskatchewan - because the principles in play are identical to the ones that drove the US Congress to try to legislate morality in corporations.

The comparison feels even more apt given the Sask Party believes government is a corporation, which it absolutely is not. The provincial government is not a business, nor should it be ran like one.

It is right now in Saskatchewan, however.

For example, Saskatchewan government ministries don’t have mandates, they have a “business plan”.

Calling operational directives for critical infrastructure including health care, education and social services a “business plan” was Scott Moe’s idea.

So let’s roll with it.

We know that Scott Moe wants nothing more than to be a big deal, so let’s pretend that he’s the CEO of Saskatchewan. Donna Harpauer is our CFO. Let’s pretend a single clown in Scooter’s caucus, or most of our urban mayors, or a single Saskatchewan Member of Parliament (MP) has the competency to fill an executive leadership position, nevermind do the goddamn job we pay them to do for us.

Scott Moe, Paul Merriman, Sandra Masters, Tim Reid… all failed to take any responsibility for their actions or decisions as leaders, sending a message to Saskatchewan residents that they place no value on personal accountability.

Time and again we’ve seen Scott Moe, his caucus and cabinet and high-paid partisan public servants at the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Crown corporations or other government agencies withhold and manipulate information.

This means we don’t get the necessary facts to make informed decisions about living in Saskatchewan. Residents are driven to act out of desperation and self-interest rather than give any consideration to the big picture, which is often what’s best for us in the long run.

Today’s Sask Party, under Scott Moe's leadership, has throttled Saskatchewan’s progress in addressing climate change-related issues and moving towards renewable - and economically sound - energy sources.

After proving, time and time again that he doesn’t value human life, Moe’s funding cuts, understaffing, and overall decimation of our once robust kids’ K-12 education system and our hospitals has severely and negatively impacted our overall well-being and quality of life as Saskatchewan residents.

The Sask Party could not give a single shit about the the historical and ongoing challenges faced by Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. In fact, they seem pretty committed to creating a whole bunch of new ones.

We should be electing the best and brightest Saskatchewan residents to represent our interests in the Legislature.

MLAs, particularly on the government side, don’t need university degrees or decades of business experience. They do need to be knowledgeable and well-informed about Saskatchewan’s issues and how they impact us as a whole. They should be able to inspire and motivate, build consensus, and be willing to make tough choices when necessary.

We should be trusting the most exemplary Saskatchewan residents - those with a proven track record of honesty, accountability, and transparency - with the power to act on our behalf when making decisions about Saskatchewan’s money, lands and future. Who will act in the best interests of their constituents rather than for personal gain or to serve partisan interests.

We should be granting this privilege to those who we feel confident will handle  themselves with the utmost integrity when making history-altering decisions in the name of the Government of Saskatchewan. Individuals who can work well with others and find common ground.

Is that what we're doing?

Are we putting forward our most trustworthy? MLAs who grasp that the power we've trusted them with means we expect them to have no other personal allegiances beyond party (which is bad enough)?

Who understand that in order to properly represent Saskatchewan’s common interests and not their own - and so we can actually believe them when they say they are - they must totally forfeit all their other personal pursuits?

Have we really elected the best of Saskatchewan? 

Or are we just electing the most opportunistic?

The most wealthy, the most well-connected or the most conniving?

The most power-hungry?

And yeah, Saskatchewan NDP, I’m looking at you too. Specifically, I’m looking at your lackluster nomination races across the province.

Is the NDP putting up their best for elected roles? Or are they just putting forward the same tired, boring rotation of unelectable candidates favoured by Eric Kline, Pat Atkinson and other NDP throwbacks still shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic?

I’m working on a piece about the mind-boggling individual business interests and the extraordinary conflict of interests facing Sask Party MLAs, particularly cabinet ministers. I’ve written about this for years and it’s getting exponentially worse over time, not better.

I’ve said this before but Don Morgan’s empire alone is just sickening - the man will be scrutinized and his legacy destroyed when hindsight makes it clear just how unethically and selfishly he’s handled himself over the course of twenty years in government.

What a shame.

But I ask myself the same question now every time I publish.

Does anyone really care?

The backslide and regression in Saskatchewan will not be fixed overnight. It will take real effort from good people to turn this flaming dumpster fire around and steer us back in the direction our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents once had us on as they built our still very young province.

It can be done. The fences can be mended, the damage repaired.

The question right now is who’s going to step up?

Have a great week,