Endgame For FNUC

Yesterday Rob Norris announced that the Saskatchewan government would suspend FNUC'S funding if there wasn't changes made right now, if not sooner, to FNUC's board of governors and management structure (CBC Saskatchewan). FNUC's board of governors pretty much told them to get lost at the Jan. 27 board meeting. (Leader-Post)

Now, the federal government will go along with whatever Rob Norris proposes to do about FNUC, including withholding up to $12 million in total from the two governments (globeandmail.com). Here's something nobody on any side of the Saskatchewan political spectrum would every imagine hearing from a prairie dog reporter: Rob Norris is doing the right thing. It's going to take gonads of titanium to battle the FSIN, but he's willing to do it.

NDP Sweeps By-elections

Regina Douglas Park candidate Dwain Lingenfelter's back at the marble palace (representing ME!?!) and Saskatoon Riversdale elects a young, progressive and dynamic candidate in Danielle Chartier. Details here. (CBC). This result comes as a huge surprise to...no one.

Forum Cancelled

Received a follow-up e-mail today from Jim Elliott , chair of the Al Ritchie Community Association, announcing that the all-candidates forum that had been planned for Sept. 15 had been cancelled because of a commitment Dwain Lingenfelter ended up having in Saskatoon. Rescheduling the forum proved impossible, so voters will go to the polls in Regina Douglas Park on Sept. 21 without having had the opportunity to hear the candidates square off in a debate.

Energy Rethink?

Received a press release from the Committees Branch of the Saskatchewan Legislature yesterday announcing that an all-party committee (official title: the Standing Committee on Crown and Central Agencies) will be conducting, and I quote, "an inquiry to determine how the province can best meet the growing demand for electricity in a manner that is safe, reliable, environmentally-sustainable and affordable for Saskatchewan residents." To that end, hearings are scheduled to be held in Regina Oct. 6-8 and Oct. 16 and 19; in Saskatoon Oct. 9, 13 and 14; and in LaRonge Oct. 15.

In a news release of its own, the NDP opposition criticized the government for the tight timeframe. "This is a process designed to deal with an extremely significant issue--the future of our energy needs in Saskatchewan--and it is very unfortunate that the Wall government has no interest in taking it seriously," says NDP MLA Trent Witherspoon.

Is the all-party committee just a whitewash to deflect criticism of the biased and deeply flawed Uranium Development Partnership process, or is it a legit attempt by the government to address concerns that were raised during public consultations into the UDP report, and which Dan Perrins will surely have noted in his report that is due to be submitted, last I heard anyway, on Sept. 14? Time will tell, I guess.

For more info, check the committee website at:
www.legassembly.sk.ca/committees/CrownCentralAgencies/crown_central_agenciesnew.htm

Forum Affairs

Prior to the Sept. 21 byelection in Regina Douglas Park there will be an all-candidates forum featuring Dwain Lingenfelter (NDP), Victor Becker Lau (Green Party) and Kathleen Peterson (Saskatchewan Party) at St. Augustine School gym (2343 Edgar St.) Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. According to organizers, the format will include an opening presentation from each candidate, followed by their responses to four specific questions, then the audience will be allowed to ask questions of the candidates.

Minimum Age Law Examined, Found Evil

Saskatoon blogger Joe Kuchta has another of his famous, mega-researched, lonnnnnng posts up over at his blog Owls And Roosters. This time Kuchta details a connection between Canadian Federation of Independant Business (CFIB) desires and Sask Party policy on the question of kids under 16 working. His basic point: that the CFIB pushed for the controversial rules because small Saskatchewan businesses need more worker bees. Not because it's good for young workers.

You can read it here.

On the topic... someone should, at some point, do a comprehensive study comparing the Saskatchewan NDP's alleged favouritism of the labour agenda to the Saskatchewan Party's oft-suggested favouritism of business. I predict The Sask Party government would be shown to be a lot more business-friendly than the NDP was ever labour-friendly.

But that's just a (very reasonable) guess.

Post-NDP Tidbit

NDP Leadership candidate Ryan Meili isn't going to run in Lorne Calvert's old riding, Saskatoon Riversdale. With Calvert gone, there will be a byelection in the riding at some point in the not-too distant future. Many expected Meili to make a play for it, which seems logical at first glance. The guy clearly has support in the party and appears to have the makings of a potentially very successful progressive politician.

But Meili, who came in a robust second to Dwayne Lingenfelter in last weekend's NDP leadership contest, is supporting Danielle Chartier, a lifelong Riversdale resident and strong, progressive candidate in her own right who's already declared her intention to seek the NDP nomination for the seat.

Meili says he'll run for a seat in the 2011 election at the latest. Take his word for it, says I.

Here's the story in the StarPhoenix.

Yesterday, of course, new NDP leader Dwayne Lingenfelter said he will run in Harry Van Mulligen's Douglas Park riding after the long-time politician steps down June 30. Certain bi-weekly magazines that chronically misspell the former cabinet minister's name "Van Mulligan" will have to find a new victim in the legislature.

Frankly I think Ryan "Mieli" would be a good option.

The latest on Brad Wall's second favourite football team

I just hope Al Davis' management style doesn't come naturally to Wall ...

(Thank You Shutdown Corner)

Don't worry, Colin. They've got your back

Governments have an interesting way to deal with the proceeds of crime. For example. prostitution -- the act of having sex with someone in exchange for money -- isn't illegal, but spending money earned through prostitution is illegal. And when police arrest and courts convict drug dealers, the proceeds of their crimes are impounded -- their money and goods are forfeited to the state.

But when someone murders his ex-wife the day after getting turfed from cabinet and the day before the first payment in what was then Saskatchewan's largest divorce settlement ... then writes a book about it, that's different, right? Especially if he's got friends in the right places. (CBC Saskatchewan)

The nuclear blackout

When you read the comments on the CBC story, you know the Sask Party trolls got their talking points for the day from KKKate at smalldeadanimals or something or other. It's all the NDP's fault, and the gomer who blacked out the documents on the nuclear debate was a secret agent of the Lingenfelter and the NDP.

Give me an effin' break.

People who work in a conservative government bureaucracy do NOT do anything -- right down to bowel movements -- without getting their political masters' permission. This isn't the Tommy Douglas civil service, who were expected to come up with innovative programs and ideas. You work for us, bucko. You do what we say you should do. And if you don't like it, there's the effin' door. Don't let your socialist butt hit it on the way out -- don't damage government property.

Sunshine, go away today ...

To paraphrase a song that seemed to be airing constantly for 30 years of CKCK radio ...

Don Morgan can't (CTV) even (CTV) run his own department (Murray Mandryk, L-P), I'll be damned if he thinks he should be running the CBC (Bill Stovin).

The issue whether the tape of the transmissions between RCMP officers on duty at the time of the Curtis Dagenais shooting spree should be played in public is a thorny one. Practically, I see no need to hear those reports. I'm not fascinated by the morbid side. But there's a legal question the CBC is bringing up: if the tape is played in open court, which is supposed to be public forum, then how can the judge turn down a request to have the audio played in public?

Don Morgan didn't think about those things when he opened his mouth. Don Morgan doesn't apparently, feel the need to think about a lot of things.

Separated at Birth?

Is it just me, or does Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall bear more than a passing resemblance to New Jersey Devil's goalie Martin Brodeur?

Football and politics

What do you say when you meet up with someone who you really respect, but in a very public work, you want to tell them – and fail to tell them – that they’ve missed the point? That’s the dilemma I faced at a Conexus Credit Union branch when I ran into Rod Pedersen, CKRM’s sports director, play-by-play guy for the stations’ Pats and Riders broadcasts, and author of Green Magic, a book about the 2007 Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The book, originally (at least in my mind) was to have been the subject of an 800 word review, which got cut down further and further into a squib of a review that appeared in the pre-Christmas edition under recommended gifts (the same thing happened to two other books, by Jim Pitsula, that I wanted to review for prairie dog). Space considerations and other stories thwarted my and Whitworth’s attempts to publish anything else.

The worst I can say about Pedersen’s book is the best that I can say: inside a good book is a great book struggling to get out. Green Magic was written because the Riders couldn’t or wouldn’t publish a commemorative DVD of the 2007 season (something about not being able to secure broadcasting rights). Pedersen’s book is good at describing the 2007 season, but he’s a sports guy, not a political studies major, sociologist or historian. And the REAL story of the Saskatchewan Roughriders – how they went from a mom-and-pop organizations where the season ticket drives could have been themed by Pete Droge and the Sinners to the flagship not just of the CFL but also of, for lack of a better term, Saskatchewan Inc., has yet to be told. I think Steve Mazurak (former Rider receiver, local boy, ran for the Liberals in the same riding where I ran for the Rhinos in 1984, currently the Rider’s VP of marketing) is the Riders’ unsung hero for putting the Riders on a much more stable financial footing.

The Riders took everything in the Al Ford business playbook, made a photographic negative out of it, and succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. No more frantic pack the park days that revealed the Riders then-true purpose (not to win football games, but to get 20K or so in the city to buy meals at the restaurants and bars and sleep off the hangovers in the hotels). After Hillsborough, these were acts of madness. As well, the Riders lifted the home blackout policy, got ‘retro’ third jerseys,’ and otherwise gave the Riders a massive warchest.

Somebody writing a story like that could have given the Saskatchewan equivalent of America’s Game, a great book on how the NFL reinvented itself into the marketing machine it is today. Maybe that wasn’t Pedersen’s mandate or ambition when he wrote Green Magic: I wish it was.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Though Premier Wall's floating a trial balloon (and we'll have to wait for the next provincial budget to see if his thoughts become government policy), his idea of sharing one-fifth of the PST with municipalities makes a lot of sense. And dollars.

First of all, Saskatchewan's municipalities have not only been chronically underfunded (especially since the Romanow-era cutbacks, in response to the debt left behind by the Devine Comedy of Errors) and are facing big problems resulting from a crumbling infrastructure and (in the case of Weyburn, Estevan, Swift Current, Regina and Saskatoon) increased economic and population growth. While Lorne Calvert's government provided a few more shekels to municipalities, it all appeared done on a catch-as-catch-can basis: municipalities couldn't bet a guarantee from the province that there would be as much money coming their way in the next fiscal year. And why was that? Did the NDP believe that the province would suddenly fall into recession? Or did the NDP believe that they the better arbiters of what municipal governments should be doing with their money? A bit of column A, a bit of column B.

Wall says that the provincial government should be able to provide the equivalent of one point of the PST to municipalities. This would mean, says Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco, that the municipal revenue pool would increase by $40 million, and that municipalities would have a steadier flow of cash from the provincial government.

So, from here, Brad Wall appears to be doing the right thing. Before there's a killing frost in Hell, however, let's see the details.

Mea Culpa

With regard to the apology we issued to Saskatchewan Finance Minister Ron Gantefoer and Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz in our Dec. 18 edition for mis-identifying the latter as the former in a cut-line for a photo that ran in our Nov. 6 issue; I was the person who made the mistake. The weird thing is that I'd actually seen Gantefoer in person last March at an embargoed press conference that he conducted at the Legislature prior to presenting the first Sask Party budget. During that press conference, I was about 15 feet away from him for nearly an hour. So I had a pretty good idea what he looked like. The night we went to press with the Nov. 6 issue, I took a quick look at the file photo accompanying Paul Dechene's article on recently announced provincial tax cuts, said "That's Gantefoer", and wrote the caption: MERRY MAN: Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer's tax cut benefits the poor, but at what cost?

You know how Superman gets ridiculed for the idea that the only real disguise Clark Kent uses to hide his identity as the Man of Steel is a pair of glasses? As if Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and other intimates of his at the Daily Planet wouldn't notice the resemblance, people always joke. After my experience with Gantefoer and Krawetz I'm not so sure. If you see a picture of Krawetz without his glasses, it was pointed out to me by Stephen Whitworth, the difference between the two men is obvious. But in the photo we ran, Krawetz is wearing glasses. With them, it's like one of those "separated at birth" things. Krawetz has slightly darker hair than Gantefoer, and a semi-prominent forehead curl, but otherwise, it's like trying to tell Owen Wilson and Ellen Degeneres apart. Or Sarah Jessica Parker and Dee Snider. Or Warren McCall and Matt Damon.

Still, that's no excuse for the mistake I made. So I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Mr. Gantefoer and Mr. Krawetz myself.