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Sixteen years of New Democratic Party government in
the western prairie province of Saskatchewan
ended on November 7 when the right wing Saskatchewan Party captured 37
seats to the NDP’s 21.
The Liberal Party was shut out in the vote that left
neighbouring Manitoba as the only province in Canada still
led by the labour-based NDP.
Technically, the Saskatchewan Party is a new
party. Actually, it was formed in 1997 as a coalition of
Conservatives and Liberals following the break up of the disgraced
Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative Party whose 10 years in government
eventually landed 14 Conservative members of the Legislature in jail for
fraud and breech of trust.
For its part, the NDP brass should know by now that
trying to be all things to all people often results in being nothing much
to anybody. In an attempt to under cut the growing popularity of
the Saskatchewan Party, NDP Premier Lorne Calvert attempted to appear
more conservative. He promised tax cuts and private-sector wage
restraints.
In the opinion of Ken Rasmussen, director of the
Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of
Regina, the tactic backfired big time.
“The NDP moved to the centre of the right and that had
people thinking, ‘Why not vote for the real thing?’” he said.
Brad Wall, 41, the Premier-elect who managed to
convince voters that he was not planning to privatize provincial services
and public corporations, began his election night victory speech with the
all too cute and unintentionally ironic expression, “And now for
something completely different.”
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