mandryk: moe's toronto award for his right-wing views rather telling
saskatchewan premier scott moe's eagerness to cater to right-wing interests is a theme he can't seem to escape.
3 minute read
saskatchewan premier scott moe's eagerness to cater to right-wing interests is a theme he can't seem to escape.
michelle berg
/
sas
one big problem with premier scott moe’s “new beginning” theme to open saskatchewan’s 30th legislature is that his past quickly caught up to him. but the bigger problem may be that moe is mostly ok with all of this … or at least, he’s far less concerned about the fallout from his saskatchewan party government’s past peccadillos than he is about remaining in good stead with right-wing interests.
what was clear from the results of the 2024 saskatchewan election is that moe and his strategists have now determined it’s unwise to continue to be perceived as dogmatically hardline right-wing.
so, gone this first legislative sitting was his once no. 1 priority of policing change rooms in elementary schools, which he declared halfway through the campaign. it wasn’t even mentioned in the throne speech.
in fact, the only reference to it in the chamber was regina walsh acres ndp mla jared clarke’s throne speech reply, in which for the first time he publicly acknowledged he was the dad of two balgonie children that spurred moe’s aborted change room policy.
sitting in his seat listening to clarke’s heartfelt speech about raising trans kids should have been reason enough for moe to take stock.
to his credit, moe refocused attention on affordability and the needs of hospitals and schools. this approach allowed the sask. party to avoid creating any new controversies … although there were still plenty of old ones to go around.
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many of those old issues flowed from the pages of volume 2 of the provincial auditor’s 2024 report — an opposition treasure trove of past government problems ranging from poor monitoring of properties by the saskatchewan housing corp. to bad tracking of foreign-owned farmland properties to the never-ending saga over former mla gary grewal’s motel business.
but also emerging in the waning days of the mercifully brief fall sitting is a notion that moe still seems to crave validation from the far right — even if that praise flies in the face of whatever narrative sask. party image makers are attempting to spin.
surprisingly for a government that rushes out a news release for every favourable statistic, kind word or kudo, there was nary a mention that moe was honoured when he went to toronto last june to accept a “game-changer award” from the coalition of concerned manufacturers and businesses of canada.
so what was the game moe changed?
according to the ccmbc, which calls itself a “different kind” of business lobby group, the award was for “his solid, courageous” leadership in “fiercely opposing the carbon tax,” and because he “unapologetically supported the freedom convoy” and was “the first to lift the ill-conceived and unscientific covid restrictions.”
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“in the fullness of time, he has proven to be so right,” ccmbc board member ves sobot said at moe’s award gala. “the mainstream media, of course, has tried to paint him as a danger, as a heretic.”
according to the gala event’s brochure — which moe’s staff must have left in their $500-a-night mariott bonvoy hotel rooms — the award was also for “defending parental rights in our public school system and fighting back against the insidious gender identity and critical race theory policies being promoted in our schools.”
moe told reporters on thursday that this was “news to me.”
now, one might think the premier would have some recollection of what this award was for. after all, this issue changed the course of the sask. party campaign.
he also similarly denied this event was a political fundraiser and doesn’t seem to recall ccmbc president catherine swift telling well-heeled torontonians at the swank gala that they should donate to moe because saskatchewan is one of the few jurisdictions where unlimited out-of-province donations are allowed.
if moe wasn’t there to raise money for the sask. party, why go to accept some dubious award that he strangely seems unwilling to publicly acknowledge?
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it does seem odd that, after everything, moe still covets this kind of recognition.
mandryk is a political columnist for the regina leader-post and the saskatoon starphoenix.
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