Mandryk: If the Sask. Party tent does collapse, Moe will get the blame

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If one didn’t know any better, one might think the political world is caving in on Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party government.

It’s still hard to believe. And the safe bet is that the Sask. Party will still win the Oct. 28 general vote … unless it gets postponed to 2025 because of Moe’s now “habitual” political problems.

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After all, rival parties have so far demonstrated they can’t win seats in the province … or, in the case of the main rival NDP, half the province. As long as Moe can keep convincing voters he is running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax, he still has a better-than-average chance of winning.

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But if things cave in after Jeremy Harrison’s fiasco, many will cite the problem of a premier who ignored the integrity of the pillars he chose.

The cracks in support have been visible for some time … and Moe has simply been ignoring them.

Some 80 years of political experience walked out the door earlier this month when the sitting ended and cabinet ministers Donna Harpauer, Dustin Duncan, Gord Wyant and Don McMorris joined Don Morgan (shuffled out last August) and have now left the assembly.

It was probably wrong to read too much into the resignation of Gord Wyant as advanced education minister, given that any day now he is likely to announce his bid to become the next Saskatoon mayor.

Of course, government supporters argue this is all part of a series of unfortunate events.

Veteran cabinet ministers do retire, and even Duncan’s departure was not unexpected.

But with Joe Hargrave now leaving — he was also nominated to run again, along with backbenchers Marv Friesen and Hugh Nerlien — there is clearly a recurring pattern.

Not all of the departures are attributed to health or aging out. The evidence of problems seems to be accumulating.

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We now have 14 sitting Sask. Party MLAs leaving, plus two removed from caucus in the last six months — not counting the seven others elected in 2020 who have departed for other reasons, including criminal charges — with Monday’s sudden and unexplained departure of veteran cabinet minister Hargrave.

“It seems to be more habitual,” Moe said at the cabinet swearing-in of Martensville MLA Terry Jenson.

Moe said he hoped it would be the last cabinet replacement for awhile … shortly before saying that Harrison will remain at the cabinet table, despite his “communication” failings and his admitted untruthfulness that cost him his unpaid Government House Leader duties.

Yet it’s still Moe “communicating” Harrison’s still-nonsense explanation as to why he couldn’t have left the gun in his vehicle or even at his Regina home, moments away from the legislature.

Why isn’t Harrison before the television cameras explaining all this? Why would Moe have to answer questions on workplace harassment or intimidation of a public officer and improper transportation and storage of a firearm?

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How do others in cabinet and caucus feel about these special considerations for Harrison? Again, why are so many leaving?

Perhaps Moe thinks his opposition is so weak that he and his government can skate past this.

It is hard to see what bridges NDP Leader Carla Beck and her caucus have in areas beyond the cities. After years of erosion by strong currents flowing from the right, Beck’s party still has problems there.

However, Beck at least seems to recognize the need to rebuild trust; Moe appears to be moving in the opposite direction since his 2022 COVID-19 handling and, more recently, the Parents’ Rights Act.

Toss in the teachers’ negotiations, the nonsense Bill 70 on legislative security and the economic sovereignty act. Consider which minister or ministers were responsible. Now, consider that other, better ministers are, coincidentally, pulling up stakes. One wonders how they feel.

Heck, Hargrave was kicked out of cabinet for taking a foreign trip during COVID-19 that he was honest about and at least paid for himself.

Double standards for underperforming ministers Moe favours? That seems a big crack in the foundation.

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Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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