Yes, I think the analysis is good. People really do identify with Wall. He's not especially smart, but he's glib and he knows how to be charming (some would say, I never liked him) and he speaks their language.
However, it wasn't possible to channel an Obama or Sanders style campaign for this election, though. Those campaigns are predicated on change, and that's exactly what SK is not interested in.
The best recap of the situation in Saskatchewan once can find in the media right now is this:
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/brad-wall-is-saskatchewan-and-thats-why-h...'
Great piece. I haven't lived in Sask since the '90's so I have not seen or heard much of Brad. I caught part of his victory speech and he sounded to me like he understands full well that Red Tories are electable. He didn't sound like a right wing Reform zealot but instead sounded like a Diefenbaker Conservative.
The NDP has hit the wall all over the country since it has devolved from a social democratic movement pressing for societal change into an electoral machine. I have seen the BC NDP drive out young activists for over a decade. When idealistic young people come to the party they get told to get stuffing fundraising envelopes because winning is the game not social change.
The thing is, if you really listen to the SP, they're not Red Tories. Don't mistake the affability for anything more than spin.
The thing is, if you really listen to the SP, they're not Red Tories. Don't mistake the affability for anything more than spin.
I agree but spin goes a long way in this era. The problem is that the NDP also sound like Red Tories so what is a non partisan voter to think.
So no, you have nothing to be smug about here. Nothing that happened tonight validates your "lefties are losers" attitude.
I get the sense that his point -- and it's a reasonable one -- is that if the party you wish were more progressive isn't, that doesn't really explain voting for a party that's even LESS progressive.
"I find that this restaurant's 'medium' chicken wings are too spicy for me, so I'd better order the 'Suicide Inferno' wings instead".
The issue is really a collapse in voter turnout. Only about half the overall voters even showed up this time. The argument for staying the course on a bland centrist agenda(or moving further right, as I suspect that poster would actually prefer) rests on the assumption that the current voters are the only ones who are ever going to show up, so a provincial NDP seeking to regain power in that situation can only gain votes by further dilluting its core values.
A lot of the rest of us would argue that the actual way to win is to try to get a large chunk of the non-voters to become voters, by speaking out for things the current debate doesn't include, and by openly allying the SNDP with the social movemens of Saskatchewan, which are much more vital and arguably much more popular than the SNDP itself these days.
Here's another interesting link around the Saskatchewan political scene, regarding Naveed Anwar - a Liberal candidate and a former provincial NDP candidate and Broten activist.
http://oursask.ca/2016/04/07/meet-naveed-anwar-the-man-changed-the-cours...
It's an interesting read that I wouldn't necessarily regard as the full truth, but it gives you some idea of what the backroom boys in the NDP were doing to some of the young talent.
Meh. A one-sided tale from an aggrieved party. I'd take it with a hefty grain of salt.
Had there not been ongoing culls of potential up and comers long before this, there would have been a much larger and better organized field to choose from. The problem dates from before Broten and Meili's time.
This was the most apathetic election in Saskatchewan that I have ever witnessed, and that was not a good omen. And everyone, Ryan Meillie is NOT the messiah of the Saskatchewan NDP. Cam Broten was the least horrible leadership candidate from a very poor list of leadership hopefuls.
Meillie obviously has a strong constituency in the Saskatchewan NDP, as evidenced by his strong showings each time he ran. I'd be interested to hear more of your thoughts on this.
Turning to politics generally, Wall took over government in the time of a boom, so it's not that hard to be popular in that context. That boom appears to have stalled, so now the government is going to have to make some tough decisions, and it will be interesting to see how that goes. My bet is that before things get really rough, Wall steps down and leaves his successor holding the bag. (Kind of like how Gary Doer quit the Manitoba NDP before the province's finances collapsed due to the crash of 2007-2008.) I think climate change is another issue, because as climate change continues to hit the province harder and harder ([url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/fire-destroys-train-bridge-po... does a grass fire take out a rail bridge in Saskatchewan in frigging MARCH?[/url] I think the government's "we-have-no-plan-for-climate-change" approach will sound sillier and sillier even from within the province. And if the government cannot convince other provinces to allow pipelines, what then?
