Polarize, Polarize, Polarize!

I recently traveled to the capital of our socialist republic to catch a flight out of the city. I hadn’t been there long before I came across an issue of The Prairie Dog, a bi-monthly free publication targeted towards the X and Y generations crowd. I found it to be quite a good publication, focusing on arts and culture. Like most publications of its genre, it had a noticeably leftist slant. This didn’t both me; I’m open to different viewpoints and, in fact, encourage them.

However, I did come across one column that prompted me to want to comment on its content. The column: “Divide and Conquer: Calvert’s Road to Victory: Polarize, Polarize, Polarize” by John Conway, a sociology professor at the University of Regina and an ardent left-winger. In the piece, Conway explains that if the NDP are to be successful in the next provincial election, they must not hug the centre, but move further to the left. This, he says, will prevent a “ho-hum campaign” that focuses on the tiredness of the current NDP regime. By moving to the left, Calvert will force Brad Wall and the Saskatchewan Party to reveal their true stripes, which Conway asserts are not the centrist positions that they allude to espouse. Rather, Wall is a “closet right-winger.”

Conway then outlines the ways in which Calvert is to distinguish his party from Wall’s.
1. A new energy strategy that will include a doubling of resource rents and the re-establishment of a crown oil company.
2. An agricultural relief program targeted at the bottom two-thirds of farmers.
3. A major restructuring of rural governance by replacing rural municipalities with large counties.
4. Restructuring medicare with a move to public or cooperative clinics with salaried physicians.
5. The introduction of labour laws that would ban the use of scabs during lockouts and jail time for “nasty” employers that violate the now stricter labour laws.

Well, Conway is right, a platform such as this would surely differentiate the NDP from the Saskatchewan Party and yes, and it would force voters to make a real choice. However, he is most likely wrong in his assertion that this would result in a Saskatchewan Party loss. Contrary to Conway’s skewed perception of reality, extreme left-wing propositions such as these would not appeal to most Saskatchewanians. Putting forward a campaign such as this would not force Wall to “reveal his real ideological orientation and intentions.” Rather, it would paint Calvert as the extremist in the eyes of most Saskatchewanians.

However, leaving commonsense aside and forgetting for a moment that these measures would effectively run the province’s economy into the ground, why would these measures be popular with the voting public?

First, most people in Saskatchewan realize that the favourable economic conditions we are experiencing right now are due in large part to the oil and gas industry. Why mess with it? If its not broke, don’t fix it, right? (This question is especially pertinent when one considers the fact that the province’s oil and gas industry really took off when rents were decreased.)

Second, the creation of yet another crown corporation does not strike me as a particularly sexy campaign promise. I would expect that few people, minus those employed in the industry or at the furthest ends of the spectrum would really care.

Third, an agricultural relief program of any kind would be viewed as too little, too late. Conway’s suggestion of this idea speaks to his ignorance of rural Saskatchewan and the people who live there. For them, the NDP is no longer an option – that was clear in the two previous federal and provincial elections and will be all that more apparent in the next election.

Fourth, the abolition of rural municipalities would represent a further downsizing of services to the people of rural Saskatchewan and further entrench their sentiments that the NDP government has abandoned them. Indeed, it would surely negate any favour the party might gain through the announcement of their agricultural relief program.

Fifth, being heavy handed with the physicians in the province is not a wise way to win popularity among the public. It is my prediction that if physicians are forced into going on salary instead of the currently more popular fee for service payment method, they will leave to practice elsewhere. The recruitment and retention of physicians to the province, particularly to rural areas, is already a perilous task. It would not be difficult for the voting public to see that aggravating the situation would risk the quality of health care of those in Saskatchewan.

Sixth, unless you’re a union member (which likely indicates you already have a predilection for the NDP anyway), you’re most likely sick and tired of hearing about unions and the inconvenience that strikes pose to the general public. It’s not like untapped support for the NDP is really going to be pulled in by giving unions more power.

Ultimately, what Conway fails to recognize is that most people are not strictly left or right wing, but fall somewhere in the middle. This is basic knowledge to any student of politics, let alone someone with a PhD in political sociology. If one candidate is presenting himself as a centrist option and the main competition is an extremist, which is the general public going to choose? Those of us who truly care about the future of our province can only hope that Calvert and his cronies heed Conway’s advice, for this would surely secure that Brad Wall would be our next Premier. Given the Calvert government’s track record, they just might be absurd enough to do it!