Pushme-Pollyu

More Saskatchewan political news, as David Karwacki's fight to stay relevant has led to tripartisan agreement to deal with the issue of push-polling, which was apparently due to become a problem in the province any decade now. But while Karwacki's effort has confirmed a lack of intention to use a tactic that apparently wasn't in use anyway, the move may just be conceding the strategy to the other party which is looking to back into the Legislature:

All three of Saskatchewan party leaders have now pledged they won't use "push polling" in the next provincial election...

The issue came up recently when Liberal leader David Karwacki wrote to Premier Lorne Calvert and Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall suggesting several ways the parties could keep the next campaign more positive...

Calvert said the NDP doesn't do push polling and he promised it wouldn't.

"I personally find it offensive," he said. "To my knowledge, we have never used it and so long as I'm leader of this party we will not use it."

Karwacki and Wall pledged they won't engage in push polling either.

I'll note that while CBC uses a fairly restrictive definition of "push polling", it doesn't necessarily need to be negative if it has the effect of presenting a biased picture to a respondent. And with the three main parties all agreed to take the push-polling weapon out of their arsenal, I have to wonder whether a soft push poll might be just the break the Sask Cons need to make a comeback:

"Question 1: Do you consider yourself a Christian?

Question 1A (if answer to (1) is "yes"): Do you believe that Jesus Christ came back from the dead?

Question 1B: Do you believe that a political party can do the same?

Question 1C: Do you believe in Jesus' message of forgiveness?

Question 1D: Would you consider voting for the Saskatchewan Conservative Party in the next provincial election?

Question 2 (if answer to (1) is "no"): Do you believe that that people can be rehabilitated?

Question 2A (if answer to (2) is "yes"): Do you believe that a rehabilitated person should be given responsibility in order to prove he or she has changed?

Question 2B: Do you believe that a political party should have the same chance?

Question 2C: Do you think it's time to give Saskatchewan's provincial Conservative Party another chance at government?"

Not that it's actually likely to work, even if the bulk of the province's voters would presumably be caught by one of the two pushes. But the multilateral disarmament by the other parties is more of an opening than Saskatchewan's Cons have had for awhile - and it's not as if the party's rumoured financial reserves are being put to any better use.