It went largely unnoticed, but something happened this particular decade that hasn’t happened since the 1930s.
The past decade was the first decade in Saskatchewan in 80 years where at least part of it wasn’t influenced by the governance of a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation/New Democratic Party governance.
Here is something else that was rather statistically unique: This was actually the first decade in 60 years and only the third time in our history that saw one party rule for the entire decade.
You’d have to go back to CCF rule in the 1950s — part of the Tommy Douglas/Woodrow Lloyd 20-year run — to find an entire decade in which only one party ruled Saskatchewan.
What this all means is the Saskatchewan Party — a party that’s only 22 years old — has clearly become the dominant political force.
An electoral win in October — a win everyone is expecting — will extend the Saskatchewan Party run to 17 years. That will be mean it will have governed for 17 of its 27 years of existence — a record comparable with the CCF that governed Saskatchewan 20 of its first 31 years.
The Sask. Party is quite the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta that won for multiple decades.
And, yes, we had an NDP government as recently as 12 years ago that completed a 16-year run from 1991 until 2007, suggesting Sask. Party run may not be all that unique even in our modern political history.
Butthat last NDP 16-year run, it had a “coalition government with the Liberals (albeit, a coalition in name only) and some rather narrow victories as this province struggled with its own political identity.
Compared this with the massive wins of former premier Brad Wall — 60- to 65-per-cent of the popular vote. There is no doubt that the Sask. Part now stands the province’s natural governing party, dominating the political landscape.
It has become a dynasty comparable with anything in our political history. In some ways, it’s also become synonymous with Saskatchewan, itself.
But all this begs the questions: Where is the Sask. Party likely to go from here? What does the Sask. Party have to do to stay on top in the next decade that might not be blessed with a resource boom?
Well, the challenges for any government after three terms are usually complacency, entitlement and a lack of innovation.
It begins with innovative solutions to growing the province that will likely have less natural resource revenue to balance the budget.
The Sask. Party government took a big step towards rectifying that by producing a surplus budget after years of deficits and overspending. Much of this problem was of this government’s own making — a sight of that complacency and entitlement that had clearly begun to set in.
That said, it did the right things in this year’s the province’s budget … although it still has its problems.
It still has a fond affection for capital spending, partly driven by its desire to leave monuments at considerable costs to taxpayers.
Sure, many of these projects like the Saskatchewan Hospital at North Battleford and new schools were needed.
But can anyone honestly justify the $1.9 billion for a by-pass around Regina? Were there cheaper alternatives?
And then there is the increasing question of those close to the party benefitting — a re-occurring theme this past term we saw with the Global Transportation Hub and perhaps other government investments.
Government longevity requires being in sync with the public. But, mostly, it’s simply requires providing good government.
That may be the new challenge for the Sask. Party in the decade to come.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
