The emptiest of words

I've posted before about the emptiness of Scott Moe's statements about the vehicle crash in which he killed one innocent person and injured another. But as the story has resurfaced in the course of Saskatchewan's election campaign, it's worth noting that Moe's response is only looking weaker by the minute.

While Moe's talking points regularly include a statement about living with the consequences every day of his life, he's conspicuously avoided any substance as to what that means. 

One might ask whether having been responsible for a death would lead to greater appreciation and concern for human life. But Moe has fairly clearly ruled that out by thumbing his nose at attempts to get his government to reduce the mounting death tolls from overdoses and suicides. 

One might think he'd be particularly vigilant about highway safety. But after briefly introducing some additional measures in the wake of the Humboldt Broncos tragedy, Moe used COVID as cover to announce that truck drivers could stay on the road more than 13 hours per day. 

And one might think that while repeating a message which consistently mentions the other family affected, Moe might have made some effort to reach out to them to take responsibility and offer his apologies. But Steven Balog's apparent shock at just now learning that Moe was responsible would appear to rule that out. 

So all indications suggest a complete disconnect between the lessons one could plausibly draw from being responsible for a tragedy, and Moe's personal and political choices thereafter. (Indeed, it's always seemed bizarre that anybody could walk away from such a tragedy and be inspired to do everything in one's power to further enrich the corporate donor class.)

Ultimately, it seems that if Moe has learned a lesson, it's that no amount of harm he does to others will lead to meaningful consequences for himself. And it's hard to imagine a more dangerous mindset in a premier.