Saskatchewan is no stranger to political party revolutions or party evolutions.
On July 22, 1960 after hearing a passionate Tommy Douglas speak in favour of it, 99% of the delegates at Saskatchewan’s CCF convention agreed their party should affiliate with the new national party Douglas was building in Ottawa. A month later the CCF officially merged with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the federal NDP was born.
The new national party, which at first was simply called the New Party, was alleged to be about joining forces between farmers, who were the heart of the CCF at its inception, and the labour movement.
“…Farmers must find economic allies. There is only one place you will find these allies: the men and women who sell the produce of their own hands, their own labor just as the farmers of this province sell their produce.” - Tommy Douglas, CCF Convention, July 22, 1960
Despite their overwhelming support for Douglas and his new party, the farmer-based membership of the Saskatchewan CCF was still leery of joining forces with labour. That was made clear in editorials that started running almost immediately.
“Prairie farmers have long memories. Something labour should have taken into account when staging strikes that interfered with the disposal of farm products. Or when seeking protection through tariffs. Obviously CCF leaders are acutely aware of this. . . now! They are making almost frantic efforts to assure farmers that labour will not dominate the new party.” - Leader Post editorial, Sept 14, 1960
Long memories indeed.
The decision to merge the CCF with labour was an Eastern Canadian decision made with Eastern Canadian electoral success in mind…sound familiar?
The very existence of the Saskatchewan NDP could be considered a slap in the face of prairie farmers who had supported the CCF. Frankly, while creating it benefited his personal political ambitions, it’s probably the worst decision Douglas ever made, at least for his own party.
By the time the 1964 election arrived, Progressive Conservative candidates AND Social Credit candidates, pissed off after 20-years of a CCF government, were openly campaigning for their Liberal counterparts.
Meaning in 1964, as the federal Liberals were in bed with the new federal NDP, the Saskatchewan Liberals were in bed with the provincial Progressive Conservatives.
Sound familiar?
Defeat the CCF they did. Saskatchewan voted in its last Liberal government in 1964. By 1971 the province was willing to give so-called moderate NDP and Opposition Leader Allan Blakeney a try as its premier.
Anecdotally, Blakeney was considered too moderate for the NDP and too left wing for the rest of Saskatchewan. He still managed to squeak out election wins.
In 1982, Grant Devine knew the province was his for the taking.
And he did, predominantly under the guise the Saskatchewan NDP were out of touch with agriculture and farmers. That line started with Grant Devine’s staffers and influencers and is still pushed now because Grant Devine’s staffers and influencers are still Sask Party staffers and influencers today.
Then came the thankless Nineties cleanup of Devine’s fiscal disaster by the Romanow NDP government, followed by the rebrand of the PCs as the Sask Party (thanks to five Liberal turncoats seduced by Bill Boyd). The Sask Party win in 2007 was followed by fifteen years of the Sask Party blaming the NDP for everything that has ever gone wrong with this place and the NDP refusing to defend itself.
Today the Saskatchewan NDP clings to the edge of the irrelevancy abyss.
What even is the Saskatchewan NDP?
Actually, what is a political party?
To me, it’s a sports team.
Like a sports team, a political party is a collection of loyal fans, or members, supporting one cause - winning - under one banner, brand or name. Each team or party has its strengths and weaknesses. Each has its own set of core values, beliefs and strategies for success.
It’s proud ownership of team or party history, includings its ups and downs, while cheering on its present team to their next win. Like a sports team, political parties have their own colours, logos and storylines, complete with villains and heroes.
A political party or sports team is also comprised of its fiscal assets, including strong and plentiful annual membership revenue (or season ticket holders), a solid, sustainable bank account and even property, ie. a headquarters.
So I ask again… what exactly is the Saskatchewan NDP?
The Saskatchewan NDP is not a collection of people with shared values supporting a united or winning cause. We’ve established the Saskatchewan NDP is deeply divided.
It’s not a celebration of its history, which the NDP arrogantly allowed to be swallowed almost completely by revisionist history perpetuated by the Sask Party and State Radio. Any deep-rooted party policies and more importantly, previous accomplishments, went with it.
Even though Tommy Douglas was never technically the leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, he is the current party’s founder and with a 17-year term, the longest-serving premier in the province’s history. I’m aware he wasn’t perfect, but I’ve brought him up repeatedly in these posts because the man could lead. Commandingly.
Yet, the Saskatchewan NDP have not celebrated or honored him, instead erasing Douglas from their brand and even their party’s storyline, which is politically unforgivable.
Even worse is the fact that they’ve done so from a place of shame, because their opponents have lied about and smeared former Saskatchewan premier Douglas’s legacy, which I remind you was plenty good enough for your farmer grandparents.
However, like their own recent legacy, the Sask NDP does not bother defending Douglas.
There’s certainly no fiscal history to brag about. The Saskatchewan NDP is broke. It allegedly still owns a building in Regina. If they do it’s mortgaged to the rafters because the party is in debt to its eyeballs.
That leaves orange.
We know the Saskatchewan NDP’s colour is orange.
The reality is the Sask Party and its operatives decapitated and dismembered the Saskatchewan NDP, encased its parts in cement and tossed them into Lake Diefenbaker. Whatever entrails are left are defined the way the Sask Party decides to define them that day, week or election cycle.
In a poll we crowdfunded a few months back, roughly two out of three Saskatchewan voters said the NDP needs to rebrand in order to be successful in Saskatchewan. Two out of three people who voted Dipper in the 2020 provincial election said the same. (The online poll of 808 Saskatchewan residents was held between Feb. 19 and Feb. 23.)
I’m going to take it one complicated step further, because you can’t rebrand something that doesn’t have one.
Using whatever party infrastructure the Saskatchewan NDP has left, it needs to start over. Disaffiliate with the failed experiment that was the merger of agriculture and labour, or their federal counterpart. Let go of an idea that never worked in Saskatchewan.
First, however, it needs to secure the dissolution of and merge with the Saskatchewan Liberals and Green Party.
Saskatchewan Liberal leader Jeff Walters is a great guy, I’m sure. He’s definitely done a fantastic job promoting Jeff Walters.
He’s done sweet f**k-all for his party.
I suspect Walters knows he cannot and will not do any better on that front, because right now the idea that Saskatchewan voters would select a Liberal candidate is delusional.
The Saskatchewan Green Party, however, really needs to beat it. Like seriously, go away.
All both parties are accomplishing is electing Sask Party candidates.
Regina Pasqua and Saskatoon Riversdale candidates were elected by the Green Party on a vote split. Both Saskatchewan NDP candidates would have won those ridings if the Green candidate hadn’t ran.
Regina Elphinstone was won fairly by Meara Conway but 6.5% of her vote was still siphoned off by the Greens. Saskatoon Eastview NDP MLA Matt Love won handily as well, but not after wasting time, money and energy than he shouldn’t have had to (or could have lent to another NDP campaign) outrunning a potential vote split with an aggressive Green candidate.
The few Opposition MLAs we have do NOT need to deal with that fringey shit in 2024.
Saskatchewan voters do not need to deal with that fringey shit in 2024.
Prince Albert Northcote, Regina Northeast, Saskatoon Churchill, Saskatoon Meewasin and Saskatoon Westview all would benefit from the Greens and Liberals staying the hell out of them in 2024.
Or if that’s untenable, they could, similar to what you saw above in 1964, campaign for the Sask NDP.
I believe there’s a better option.
Amalgamating under one party brand will clean up the “left” side of the voting spectrum, eliminate the threat of a vote split and cut through the copious noise the Liberals (see: Jeff Walters) and Greens still manage to make before and during the writ period.
As meagre as they are, all three parties would benefit hugely from pooling their money, resources and volunteers.
Then, once that’s done, they should not brand or name the party. Like what happened in 1960 under Douglas, in the beginning just call it “New Party”.
Once formed, the New Party executive should immediately approach leadership of existing networks such as the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), every major union, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) and the Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS).
At the same time, a New Party must secure the support of and collaboration with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN). Talk about Truth and Reconciliation, especially the Calls to Action. Ask them what they feel needs to happen to make it clear and certain that Indigenous membership, along with their input and spots on the executive and candidates list, will be a priority.
Ask each organization to come to a meeting equipped with what they think would need to be established in order for a rural voter to even consider a New Party, or at least not viscerally detest it. Then actually do it.
Further, ask each group what they need in order to support other groups with different mandates.
New Party could also do a road show, or a tour of rural Saskatchewan communities and reserves, inviting residents to listen and contribute to the foundation and trajectory of New Party.
Where do they see points of common ground?
Where do they think change could be applied to the benefit of all Saskatchewan residents?
What do they need to be okay with change that only benefits some?
Sell New Party memberships and fundraise at every meeting, every opportunity.
Make it clear that all of Saskatchewan is welcome in the New Party. That does not mean adopting the hardcore, bizarre “right-wing” (for lack of a better term, because I hate referencing “wings”) attitudes that appear to prevail (but likely don’t with the majority) in rural Saskatchewan right now.
That does not mean rejecting urban needs as uppity or less important.
Instead, simply appeal to the Saskatchewan values that anyone born here before the Nineties will remember. Like me, even if you grew up in a Saskatchewan city, you spent a lot of time in rural Saskatchewan with your grandparents. You remember a time where rural and city folk got along… didn’t see each other differently.
Without glossing over the abundance of our failings, there was once a time when Saskatchewan celebrated its uniqueness and even, god forbid, its smaller population. Neighbours looked out for neighbours and communities understood the assignment, which was not frantically promoting growth for the sake of growth.
That said, recognizing that Saskatchewan is much different than it was when we were kids is also important.
That’s why a New Party needs to go talk to it. All of it.
A New Party must eschew federal affiliations. Saskatchewan represents a whopping three percent of the Canadian population… having worked for most of them, I’m confident in stating that not one gives a flying f**k about Saskatchewan.
A New Party must constantly celebrate and at times, defend, its collective history while respecting its roots.
The New Party must be grounded in doing what’s right for the entire province, not just its own supporters.
Everyone is going to have their idea of utopia, but to me that means a New Party should:
eliminate the deliberate divide, perpetuated by the Sask Party, between rural and urban voters;
celebrate Saskatchewan history regardless of which party was in power;
recognize the composition of Saskatchewan is not homogeneous, but our core values are or can be the same;
frame all of its messaging through that set of core values, not through divisive issues;
establish a strong executive board and staff cohort, but not a bunch of peripheral committees or shadowy “Prairie Councils”, which is just a way to offload decision-making;
ensure that executive and staff cohort are competent, skilled, and experienced men and women from diverse cultural, gendered, regional and professional backgrounds;
understand that proper funding for health care and K-12 education is integral to Saskatchewan’s success, if not its future existence;
acknowledge our population numbers and unique position on the federal stage without projecting some kind of desperate inferiority complex;
build a solid, productive relationship with the federal government of any stripe;
acknowledge, protect and respect Crown corporations, public services, public service employees and the benefits they deliver to Saskatchewan;
tell the truth about the Sask Party government, utilizing a solid, respectable, honest public relations strategy, instead of piously declaring “attack ads” beneath it;
promote and celebrate prosperity, giving those who haven’t yet got there a leg up, showing them the kindness, empathy and compassion they deserve as Saskatchewan people and our neighbours;
respect and address the differing needs between the woman who owns an company serving Saskatchewan’s oil patch and the guy who owns an urban clothing store in Prince Albert without pitting them against each other;
respect and address the difference in needs between the guy who owns a clothing store and the workers who support the guy who owns a clothing store without pitting them against each other;
Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so.
Once all that is done, it would be time for a founding convention, complete with satellite conventions across the province joining via live-stream. Perhaps that’s when New Party is named and branded, but it can also wait. Leadership candidates will emerge through this process as well.
The Sask Party government unapologetically runs this province like a business, which is stupid and unhelpful. It’s committed, however, to the point that it releases ‘Business Plans” for each Ministry, instead of mandates.
So let’s talk business. Namely, one of the healthiest elements of any business or corporation: competition.
Competition forces a business or corporation to innovate, grow, anticipate future needs and be more accountable to its clients.
The Sask Party government, of which we are the clients, has no competition.
Any Sask Party supporter must recognize that is a problem.
It’s a bigger problem for the rest of us.
The stench of Sask Party complacency and arrogance is exactly what emanated off the NDP government in its later days. History repeats itself and Saskatchewan is the very embodiment of that rule, not the exception.
Unfortunately, the Saskatchewan NDP are not the answer.
However, with humility and a willingness to face reality and be honest with themselves and Saskatchewan… they can be part of the solution, by retiring their brand. Hang up the banners. Get rid of the orange.
Going forward insistently under the umbrella of any party brand which has been degraded, rightly or wrongly, to the point of virtual non-existence - especially for the sake of some kind of loyalty to that brand - is a terrible idea. It won’t work today, tomorrow or ever.
If you’re at the heart of the Saskatchewan NDP establishment and can’t grasp any of this? I suggest you walk away, because you are the problem.
You are everybody in Saskatchewan’s problem.
The NDP’s stubborn insistence that they can prevail… like, you know, eventually… is doing almost as much damage to our province at this point as the Sask Party’s unopposed, unaccountable authoritarian prevalence.
Enough already. Time for change.
Thanks for reading this three part series… I’m a bit wordy, but there’s a lot to talk about.
Have a great weekend. You know I’m going to comment on the weather, which looks amazing.
Talk soon,
