Public dangers

It's difficult to diagree with Buckdog that the Saskatchewan Libs' lurch to the right looks like the party's last gasp. And the move is particularly surprising given that the effect is to put Ryan Bater and company in direct competition with the remnants of the PCs - who ran on a similar platform in 2007 with even less success than the Libs.

But unlike Buckdog, I'd also see the Libs' shift as a potentially harmful one for the province: not because it makes the Libs more competitive, but because it figures to give Brad Wall political cover to start doing his worst.

Of course, there's been plenty of reason to criticize the Sask Party government so far. But the combination of a strong NDP opposition and the lack of much pressure from the right has at least forced the Sask Party to be somewhat more moderate than might have been expected given its well-known reactionary impulses. (That is, when it comes to issues other than labour relations.)

But if the Libs choose to focus on privatization as their primary demand, then the situation might take a significant turn for the worse. After all, any time which Bater spends railing against fabricated evils associated with public ownership can only give Wall just the excuse that he's been looking for to start gutting Saskatchewan's public sector.

Of course, if Wall responds to a privatization message by triangulating back to the right, that might become the final nail in the Libs' coffin. Which means that Bater probably has ample reason to instead focus his attention on issues which Wall won't be so eager to co-opt.

If the Libs continue on the road they seem intent on travelling, though, the result might be serious damage to the province for the future - as future NDP governments would be left having to try to reassemble any auctioned-off public institutions. And it's hard to take any great satisfication in any Lib self-immolation if the result is to make matters worse for the province as a whole.