Scott Moe Is About To Call An Election...

... and unseating Nadine Wilson is the only goal.

First of all, a huge thank you to all who read and responded to my most recent post.

Right now I can’t claim to know the future of this Substack or my work covering the Saskatchewan government, but I absolutely appreciate the sentiments and support I received. Always have been so grateful for my audience, always will be.

So instead of knowing my own future, I’m going to pretend I know Saskatchewan’s.

Today my prediction is that Saskatchewan voters are going to the polls before Christmas 2023.

Scott Moe is going to call an election that he knows only he can win, thanks to ridings his government has gerrymandered, nauseatingly corrupt election finance laws his government exploits, and a fraudulent, divisive narrative Scooter has perpetuated.

The Sask Party’s campaign will not be ran against the Saskatchewan NDP; it will be ran against Nadine Wilson. The Sask Party braintrust knows better than anyone else that the key to a new party’s success is presence in the Legislature, which provides crucial media and public exposure, funding and even things like office supplies and electronics, though the latter two are not supposed to be used for party purposes (in The Nineties the Sask Party did it anyway).

In no world is Scott Moe and the Sask Party going to give Wilson and her Saskatchewan United Party (SUP) one more moment than necessary, in the Legislature or anywhere else, to grow and strengthen. Instead, they’re going to pull the election trigger now and eliminate this pesky little affront to Scott Moe’s power, democracy be damned.

I’ve been saying for a while now that it is obvious that the Sask Party will not honor the fixed election date of October 28, 2024, despite their general insistence this is the case.

I believe that when they posted the above letter from Scott Moe in April of this year, the Sask Party was already well-aware they’d never wait til October 2024. Sure enough, the language changed over the summer to “the 2024 election”

I figured the next general election was going to be April 2024.

However, this is not the behaviour of a party that’s even six months out from a general election:

The number of incumbent Sask Party MLAs acclaimed reeks of internal manipulation, suggesting the process is being controlled by a select few power players within the party, leading to the suppression of dissenting voices and a lack of diverse representation within the party and ultimately, in public office.

Of course there is plenty of validity to the rumors that the Sask Party can’t find people willing to jump into their burning dumpster, but a candidate who is acclaimed without facing any significant challenge or competition from within their own party undermines the democratic principles of a fair and open electoral process.

It deprives Sask Party members the opportunity to choose from multiple candidates, debate their policies, and make an informed decision based on different perspectives. Acclaimed candidates do not truly reflect the will of Sask Party members and, ultimately, the general electorate.

In other words, the Sask Party appears to be running itself as undemocratically as it is the province.

Don’t just take my word for it:

Dave’s friend Jason shared the post and agreed with him:

Dave and Jason’s friend Steve chimed in too:

Dave Waldner (who was allegedly thinking about running for the Sask Party nomination in Melfort against Todd Gaudy) Jason Cooper and Steve Gessner all ran for the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan in 2020 and earned few votes, so I’m guessing that might be behind some of their bitterness. Clearly though, none of these men feel welcome back in the Sask Party, as Dave’s original post makes clear.

(The above Facebook statuses were posted publicly, as indicated by the little globe under the user’s name. These are public statements on the internet and I’m not hindering anyone’s privacy using them. That said, I chose to redact the names of those who commented but hadn’t previously ran for office.)

30 Sask Party MLAs have been acclaimed or nominated as acclaimed already, with so far only Sask Party MLA Terry Jensen of Warman winning after having to campaign to keep his seat. Eric Schmaltz, who will be running for the Sask Party against Scooter’s arch-nemesis Nadine Wilson in Saskatchewan Rivers, was acclaimed on July 5, 2023 and was campaigning all summer, including with Scooter himself.

So very natural:

Scott Moe on Twitter: “It was calmingly beautiful to visit the shores of Waskateena Beach to chat with locals from around the Candle Lake community.” Aug 20, 2023

There are a handful of contested Sask Party nomination races ongoing at the moment. Greg Ottenbreit is vacating his seat in Yorkton, which appears to be a race between Darcy Zaharia and Kaitlyn Kitzan. Canora Pelly is a battle between Sask Party incumbent Terry Dennis and local reeve Sean Wilson.

Moose Jaw Wakamow was contested by Megan Patterson, who also ran for the Sask Party in 2020 in Regina Lakeview, against Carla Beck, but incumbent Sask Party MLA Greg Lawrence withdrew from the race last week, citing injuries from his motorcycle crash.

Of course let’s not forget the eyebrow-raising and rather dysfunctional nomination race in Lloydminster, where James Thorsteinson stepped down as Sask Party president in order to try to take out his own riding’s Sask Party MLA, Colleen Young.

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Anyway, point is that when it comes to nominations, Scott Moe has put the pedal to the metal, but there is no requirement that any party have their nominations in place prior to a provincial election call. Saskatchewan’s Elections Act contains provisions for nominations during a writ period, which I’ll show you in a moment.

Before the Sask Party implemented “fixed” election dates, the whole process was a guessing game. Eliminating the guesswork for other parties and Saskatchewan voters was the entire point of fixing election dates.

Today, I believe the Sask Party is using the notion of a fixed election date to further manipulate and mislead voters and other parties.

A handful of power brokers on the inside know the real date, while the party continues to deliberately mislead the electorate with a fake one.

So here’s what I think is going to happen next: