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Why did the Saskatchewan provincial Liberal Party change its name? No, it’s not the start of a corny joke — just a desperate bid to revitalize a moribund party.
To be a provincial Liberal in Western Canada these days is to roam alone in the wilderness. So Saskatchewan’s Liberal Party rebranded itself on July 19, complete with a new logo, as the Saskatchewan Progress Party (SPP).
You can’t blame them — it’s been 20 years since a Liberal MLA sat in the Regina legislature and the Sask Grits only received 355 votes of the 444,997 total cast in the 2020 provincial election.
Next door, Alberta’s provincial Liberals currently hold no seats.
Manitoba, that Liberal ‘stronghold’ on the Prairies, voted in three Liberals during the 2019 election, up from just two in 2016.
“I hate Trudeau,” said an acquaintance at my local post office as she pulled her federal grocery rebate cheque from her mail box.
I raised my eyebrows but remained quiet. It was a play-dead move that has served me well since I relocated in 2004 to stuffy Saskatchewan from boomtown Calgary.
My neighbours all know my Liberal sympathies but I try not to step in it when the post office talk turns from football to politics.
“I just can’t bring myself to vote for Poilievre,” she adds.
“He’s pretty bland,” I reply. Hates Trudeau, doesn’t like Poilievre. That’s some good intel.
What will she make of the Saskatchewan Progress Party? Moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic comes to mind.
Last time I checked in, Saskatchewan voters weren’t getting more progressive. Saskatchewanians tend to look to Alberta for direction and inspiration.
Alberta is leaning hard on the right-right-wing end of the political spectrum. If Albertans were to move any more to the right, they’d stop holding elections altogether.
When I went to bed after Alberta’s election results on May 29, I half expected to wake to the news of NDP leader Rachel Notley’s unjust arrest. It’s The Handmaid’s Tale with cattle ranchers.
Middle-of-the-road Liberals like me are doomed. Every four years, I toss my vote into the black hole of the Moe Dynasty. When the results land, I console myself with a surfing binge of out-of-province, out-of-my-price-range real estate.
It’s going to take more than a name change to bring surly Saskatchewanians to the proverbial middle ground.
When I first moved to my small town, my partner and I rented a small tear-down house for the summer.
As we stood in the backyard getting to know the owners of the iffy property, we learned that our insurrectionist landlord liked to talk sedition trash at coffee row. “Until we had a visit from the RCMP,” his wife confessed.
I tried not to look too concerned and made a mental note to not bounce our $200 monthly rental cheque. Our new landlords acted like perfectly normal people — until you mentioned the federal government.
It’s no wonder that Jeff Walters, leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal-now-Progress Party, has taken the final step away from Justin Trudeau. It’s a name change worthy of a newly minted divorcée who recently consulted her numerologist.
If there’s anything Saskatchewan Liberals need, it’s a fresh start. And maybe, while they’re at it, a spot in the witness protection program.
After 20 years, a reset is long overdue. Yes, the Saskatchewan Progress Party stand for progress — but not real progress. Progress won’t get them elected.
But the new party will no longer have to defend Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals. Now party members can get invited to family reunions again.
The Saskatchewan Progress Party is “post-partisan,” claims Walters. By their very nature, political parties are partisan. A partisan is a strong supporter of a party, cause or person. The second definition of partisan is a member of an armed group formed to fight secretly against an occupying force.
If I were in charge, I’d change their name to the Saskatchewan Partisan Party. The occupying force? The Saskatchewan Party. As someone who lives under Scott Moe’s wobbly leadership, I’d vote for the Saskatchewan Partisan Party.
In Manitoba’s neck of the woods, if Premier Heather Stefanson keeps her word, voters will head to the polls on Oct. 3. Will Manitoba’s sitting provincial Liberals — all three of them — follow suit and demand a pre-election rebrand?
It’s not easy to be Trudeau’s apologist. I defend his record every day. “Patricia, you’re a Liberal. What do you think of Justin Trudeau’s overspending?”
“Don’t ask me,” I say, “I’m in overdraft.”
In the end, it won’t matter what Saskatchewan Liberals call themselves.
Here, the only real escape from this Saskatchewan Party stronghold is with a relocation package and an U-Haul trailer.
Independent journalist Patricia Dawn Robertson’s memoir, Media Brat, launches in Winnipeg this fall.
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