#skndpldr - Moose Jaw Debate Notes

Let's close out my review at the Saskatchewan NDP's leadership debates with a brief look at the Moose Jaw forum - which featured a fair bit of talk about specific local issues (including candidate and member questions about the closure of the Valley View Centre) in addition to a familiar set of general themes:


Perhaps the most noteworthy theme throughout the debate was that of ensuring that the corporate sector shares in the province's effort to deal with social concerns. In response to a question on climate change policy, Ryan Meili pointed out the need for large-scale businesses to pay their share of the cost of greenhouse gas emissions - potentially both through a reduced rate discount from SaskPower for industrial users, and through a carbon tax.

Erin Weir then asked Meili about the "cognitive dissonance" between his concerns about the impact of uranium mining and his intention to allow mining to continue. There, Meili recognized the need to incorporate the broader effects of the industry into our public policy decisions, but also made clear that some alternative economic plan for northern Saskatchewan would be needed if the province intended to phase out uranium mining.

In turn, Trent Wotherspoon critiqued Cam Broten's water policy for focusing primarily on residential users rather than industrial ones. And Broten both recognized the need for provincial regulators to meaningfully monitor business rather than seeing regulated businesses as its customers to be served, and highlighted the mining sector as an area of particular concern.

In the end, that set of issues didn't give rise to much direct disagreement among the candidates. But it did help to flesh out some possible applications of an agreed set of principles - along with obvious areas of distinction from a government bent on elevating business interests over any other issues.

All of which is to say that for all the differences set out during the course of the campaign, the final debates offered a strong indication that any of the candidates can make a strong case for a focus on social values when aimed in the right direction.

Finally as a particular point of interest for readers, I'll point out one part of the debate which particularly strikes me as worth a look, as the responses to one member question (1:21:12 in the video) offer as strong a direct comparison as we're likely to see in evaluating the respective economic messages of the candidates.