On developing ideas

For those wondering what's going on with the Saskatchewan NDP policy development process, the answer is plenty. The latest meeting was held last week in Swift Current, featuring Greg Marchildon and Daniel Glaeske presenting on rural health care issues; you can see their presentations either on video or in point form here.

But perhaps more importantly, the first publicly-available member-generated content has also been posted (warning: PDF). While the scope for discussion at the provincial convention was limited to two questions related to young people and education, there's no lack of ideas worth discussing, including a few suggestions on linking education to employment that strike me as both novel and worthwhile:

- Promote labour force attachment which would include job coaches for employing people with multiple barriers to employment.
...
- Start with K‐12 providing comprehensive orientation to help choose a future career. We need to engage young people at the early part of their K‐12 education. Start the discussion in elementary/middle school. Have presentations done by people in the trades/professions. Promote this in the curriculum and all throughout the K‐12 system.
...
- Increase pre‐hiring practices – where the student is hired at the beginning of their post secondary education and work with them throughout their education. Upon completion fully integrate them into their work places.

Those are just a few of the points raised at this year's convention - and hopefully they'll be only the beginning of the ideas generated by the policy review process and presented for public discussion.

For those interested in getting involved, the schedule for upcoming events is here, including discussions of northern issues in La Ronge on May 8 (this weekend) and youth issues in North Battleford on May 15. Or for those who prefer to offer their suggestions online, you'll find an e-mail link as well.

Saskatchewan NDP Convention 2010 - The Long Term

Following up on last week's look at where the Saskatchewan NDP stands in the near future (i.e. the leadup to the 2011), let's take a look at the party's longer-term positioning. And for that, the most important talk from the Prince Albert convention is Cam Broten's talk on provincial demographics, which can be found here following his introduction to the policy review process.

Initially, it struck me as surprising that the party would set time aside for a discussion of demographic trends rather than focusing on its near-term political goals. But its long-term planning obviously has to be based on some awareness of what the province will look like several election cycles down the road - and there's reason for optimism that the NDP will be well-positioned for the changing look of Saskatchewan.

Importantly, Saskatchewan is one of the few provinces not facing the type of demographic time bomb of the type pointed out by Dan Gardner. Instead, we can count on a moderate but steady increase in base population - with that growth based almost entirely in First Nations communities. And likewise, the First Nations population may make for an important exception to the rule that residents will shift from rural to urban areas.

Meanwhile, the other factors influencing the makeup of Saskatchewan's population (being international and interprovincial migration) may be far more difficult to predict. Obviously the province will hope to keep growing in these departments as well, and all parties will try to ensure some inroads into communities of new residents - but it'll be a gamble to count on a mobile population as a party's base for the future.

Which means that beyond the current party starting points, the most obvious area for potential growth is First Nations voters present and future. And that dovetails nicely with the spotlight on Lawrence Joseph at the NDP's convention, as well as the party's commitment to First Nations issues (which is now being tailored to be more responsive to community needs).

Of course, there are still risks involved in counting on any one group as the source of future growth - and the NDP will need to make a particularly concerted effort to overcome a perception that the broader political system doesn't address First Nations needs in order to improve turnout levels. But at the very least, the NDP can point to the most obvious demographic trend as one which can realistically be expected to improve its position.

And the NDP's future strength is only amplified when contrasted against the latest Sask Party budget and its direct attacks on First Nations. One could see the Sask Party as trying to bypass traditional First Nations institutions and cultures to pull new voters into a melting pot, or perhaps figure that it's hoping for in-migration to overwhelm the growth in Saskatchewan's First Nations population. But either of those paths looks to rely primarily on blind hope rather than any great likelihood of success - and each could very easily backfire if the Sask Party's assumptions prove wrong.

All of which is to say that while the NDP's chances in 2011 may look better now than they did a few months ago, there's reason to think that the long-term future will be even brighter. And that should offer plenty of encouragement for citizens to get involved now, knowing that there may be an opportunity to implement the NDP's vision for the province over many election cycles to come.

Saskatchewan NDP Convention 2010 - The Near Future

As promised, I'll take a couple of posts to follow up the Saskatchewan NDP's Prince Albert convention, starting with my take on where the party stands in the leadup to the 2011 election.

From my perspective, the convention looked to serve two purposes for the party, and it looks to be at least a moderate success on both fronts.

First, the convention served as an opportunity to frame Dwain Lingenfelter's leadership for the party's members in order to counter the Sask Party's attack ads (not to mention the media's skepticism). And while I'm not a huge fan of pouring too much effort into building up The Leader, the convention seems to have achieved its purpose without going too far over the top.

Not surprisingly, the weekend included plenty of work to reinforce Lingenfelter's stronger themes like hard work and strong management. But more importantly, Lingenfelter also spoke to younger, newer members with an anecdote about his first day on the campaign trail as well as a consistent message of inclusion within the party. And there doesn't seem to be much room for doubt after the weekend that any divisions within the party from the time of last year's leadership convention have been worked out in favour of a united effort behind Lingenfelter.

The second main task was setting out the roadmap to the election for party members. And the NDP's election planners look to be setting some remarkably ambitious goals - focusing not merely on targeting just enough seats to win back power, but on running strong and fully-funded riding campaigns across the province while also getting into the ad game as early as this spring.

Now, I'll be pleasantly surprised if the all-riding part of the plan is met in full. But the combination of the provincial equivalent of a 50-state strategy with the party's ongoing policy renewal process looks to create the best possible conditions to bring more people into the NDP tent.

Which isn't to say that anything figures to come easily for the NDP going into 2011. But the combination of a united party, a willingness to work and a well-thought out election plan isn't a bad base to build on. And if the policy renewal process lives up to its potential to add a visionary platform to the mix, then the Wall government might well end up far less comfortable than it may have expected by the time the official campaign rolls around.

For more about the convention, see the latest from Kent.

Saskatchewan NDP Convention - Sunday Wrapup

The Saskatchewan NDP convention ended this morning with another lively session featuring elections, constitutional amendments and policy resolutions to go with two speeches (a presentation from Save Our Saskatchewan Crowns, as well as a final address from Dwain Lingenfelter).

Two elections were contested: a seven-candidate race for five vice president positions (which saw Kent Peterson of Humble Opinion elected along with Kent Lindgren, Wil Olive, Sherry Magnusson and Brandi Tracksell-Sampson), followed by a two-candidate race for treasurer won by Arlee McGrath.

While the elections took top priority on the agenda this morning, a noteworthy set of constitutional amendments came next in the order of precedence with mixed results. The convention passed two amendments: CA1 to constitutionalize a candidate screening process (which to my surprise didn't face any opposition), and a housekeeping amendment in CA3. Two amendments which would theoretically have served to reduce the scope for discussion at conventions (one to reduce maximum speaking times, the other to close discussion after two consecutive speakers present on one side of an issue without opposition) were defeated, and the composition of the NDP's executive was referred for review after CA5 (deleting at-large members) also failed.

Not surprisingly, the combination of nine election speeches, two votes and a long list of constitutional amendments left little time to deal with policy, with the result that only one resolution from the health/education/social development panel was considered - and that only because the convention agreed to prioritize ED1 supporting First Nations University of Canada. Meanwhile, four emergency resolutions passed, including support for unionized workers at Affinity Credit Union, a resolution on SCN and the Saskatchewan film industry, a strong condemnation of the Sask Party's political interference in the hiring of a Chief Electoral Officer, and a call to restore the Aboriginal Employment Development Program.

I'll have more discussion about the impact of the convention in the next couple of days. But even as a relatively relaxed event sandwiched between two which figure to play exceptionally large roles in the party's development (between 2009's leadership contest and the 2011 policy convention), the convention still saw plenty of passionate debate while bringing the party together for what looks to be an extended election campaign. And if this spring will indeed play a large part in determining where each party stands going into next year's election, I'd have to figure that the NDP has reason to be happy with its position after this weekend.

On open discussions

Following up on this afternoon's post, I'll note one more tidbit from this afternoon's bear pit session which deserves a post of its own.

Throughout the convention, there's been a regular theme encouraging members and others to present whatever ideas they want to put forward within the policy review process, and concurrently making it clear that party members should keep an open mind toward even ideas which might seem "out there" on their face. But in the second-last answer of the session, Dwain Lingenfelter went a step further, telling members not to worry what the press or others outside the party might think of any idea being considered by the party. Which sends a signal that not only will the NDP encourage a fair hearing within the party for the ideas generated by the policy review, but it'll also be willing to defend the concept of open policy discussion against outside attacks rather than shutting down any topic of debate based on image concerns.

Of course, it'll be important to back up that intention with actions when it's (inevitably) tested - and to make sure that the review process itself actually plays a meaningful role in the party's policy development. But Lingenfelter's stand for a truly open policy discussion should at least do plenty to encourage creative thinking in the policy review process. And the more the principle gets absorbed into the NDP's party culture generally, the better our chances of moving past the current politics of segmentation toward a model allowing for far more authentic public involvement.

Saskatchewan NDP Convention 2010 - Saturday Afternoon Recap

I didn't note in this morning's post that the Saskatchewan NDP convention's "internet cafe" was shut down after last night - hence the limited posting today. (That said, thanks to the NDP communications staff for allowing me to use the computer room this morning to put up the earlier post.)

For this afternoon, the most interesting portion of the proceedings (the caucus bearpit) looked to be one where I'd inevitably miss important content if I tried to update during the day. So instead, here's my review of the afternoon's events.

To start with, there was no surprise in the election of the provincial President, as Jane Wollenberg was re-elected by acclamation. That left plenty of time for Darcy Furber to give the host MLA's address prior to the bearpit.

The bearpit itself featured loads of interesting questions from a variety of participants - and no, none of the MLAs (let alone the party leader) had to pitch in filler questions as has apparently happened in some other parties. (In fact, at least five more people were waiting to ask questions when the moderator finally had to call the session to a close.)

Instead, Dwain Lingenfelter kept extremely busy by answering the vast majority of the audience's questions - by my count providing the full answer to 11 of the 19 questions posed by the audience, along with partial answers to 2 more. One had to be impressed by his ability to take the lead role in answering a broad range of issues, though it might have been a plus to hear from a few more caucus members during the session.

Among the interesting answers provided by Lingenfelter:
- The NDP would plan to reinstitute the funding for Station 20 West that was pulled by the Wall government, as well as the neighbourhood organization funding cut in last week's budget.
- On a question about the abandonment of branch lines, Lingenfelter would be open to provincial support for the rail sector, noting that the result could be to save money compared to the cost of instead repairing overburdened highways.
- Responding to a question focused on forestry, Lingenfelter raised for himself the possibility that social housing might make for an effective use of some of the wood products which currently aren't finding a market.

There were a couple of points in Lingenfelter's answers which hit off notes. In response to a question and follow-up about how to get younger citizens interested in the NDP, Lingenfelter's focus on highlighting past policies seemed to miss the questioner's concern. And while he was right to point out the Regina Coronation Park nomination candidates as examples of diversity within the NDP, it's a little surprising that he didn't include Tory McGregor's Metis background - particularly at a convention where First Nations and Metis issues have been in the spotlight, and given that McGregor's former Green allegiances have been mentioned more than once as an example of the NDP's adding support from other parties.

While Lingenfelter's answers were generally well-received, the strongest crowd reaction came from Frank Quennell's lone answer. In response to question about the Wall government's marriage commissioner reference, Quennell slammed the Sask Party for abandoning important legal proceedings on equalization, tobacco and gangs while deciding to commit public money to arguing both sides of a settled question, and got a boisterous standing ovation as his reward.

As for the questioners: while as noted none of the current MLAs got in line to raise issues, a few familiar names did. Robert Hale questioned whether the NDP would be better off focusing on the Sask Party's using the province's rainy-day fund when the sun is shining rather than arguing over whether the budget is technically in deficit or not; Yens Pedersen raised a question on changing environmental legislation to include assessment of the cumulative effect of multiple exploratory oil wells; and Heather McIntyre raised concerns about the Sask Party's privatization by stealth.

After a break and a brief election planning report, the first plenary session began to deal with the convention's resolutions. As usual, most of them passed, but two noteworthy resolutions didn't survive the convention floor: EN10 (setting a 40% GHG reduction target) was referred to the policy review process so that a target could be developed in conjunction with discussion of the means of reaching it, while PA2 on free party membership (discussed in this post) was defeated.

Tonight will feature the nomination meetings for Prince Albert Northcote and Prince Albert Carlton, with more elections and plenary to come tomorrow.

(Edit: fixed typo.)

Saskatchewan NDP Convention - Saturday Morning Notes

Some semi-liveblogging for those who can't get enough Saskatchewan politics on the weekend...

9:15

Saturday started with a report from Cam Broten as chair of the policy review process, followed by a presentation on demographic trends based on Doug Elliott's work. Of particular interest was the discussion of the province's population fluctuations: in particular, the Devine-era population boom was based on internal birthrates even as out-migration increased, while the future population trends are expected to be based mostly on interprovincial migration which (like most indicators) has been on the upswing since roughly the start of the NDP's 2003 term in government.

9:40

Mark Frison takes the podium to discuss his 10 Ideas for 2010, revolving around the idea of increasing participation rates in post-secondary education, particularly trades. While it's tough to disagree with most of the principles, I'd wonder if there's some need to tie the discussion into ways of retaining the newly-trained labour force as well: by way of example, the trend at the U of S' faculty of law (at least last I'd heard) was for roughly half the graduates to move out of province on graduation, and that hadn't changed even as the general migration trends improved.

9:50

Frison somewhat addresses the question of out-migrating graduates by noting that unlike in the past, there's no risk of an oversupply of labour to meet demand in the province. That's certainly one important factor to consider, but I'm not sure that oversupply has been much of an issue even as the outmigration has taken place in recent decades.

10:25

Another rousing speech from Lawrence Joseph on First Nations engagement, this time with a provincial focus. But probably the strongest message comes in his rightful observation that the convention's "Building Saskatchewan For All People" theme should instead end in "With All People". I'd like to think the party operates generally on the latter principle, with the policy review process as a prime example - but the distinction is worth keeping in mind.

12:10

One last entry on this post to discuss Dwain Lingenfelter's leader's address, which featured plenty of recognition for the accomplishments of Allan Blakeney, Roy Romanow and Lorne Calvert along with a strong theme that the party's direction should be based on its historic approach.

From my standpoint, the most interesting content I hadn't yet heard was Lingenfelter's goal for party membership - to reach 16,000 by the end of the year, and 20,000 by election day. But to assuage any worries that that might be difficult, Lingenfelter noted that we shouldn't be why about bringing in people currently involved in other parties - aptly mentioning Tommy Douglas' line that "when I started, everybody was a Liberal or a Conservative".

Now, those hoping for Lingenfelter to present an "aw shucks" message may have been disappointed. But the conventiongoers seem to have responded well - which is presumably the audience the NDP needed to reach.

(Edit: fixed typo.)

Saskatchewan NDP Convention 2010 - Day 1 Wrapup

One of most interesting developments at this year's convention is the inclusion of an "internet cafe" encouraging conventiongoers to keep in touch with the party on Facebook and Twitter. Expect some updates through that tomorrow - but for tonight, I'll stick to a brief end-of-day wrapup.

The main provincial activity for the afternoon consisted of the resolution panels. I attended the panel on agriculture, the environment and the economy, which roared through 28 resolutions despite some lively debates on both resolution wording and the underlying policies. As expected, most of the resolutions passed with at most minor amendments - but of particular note, two parallel resolutions from the Swift Current riding to phase out coal and uranium mining (EN13 and EN14 for those following along) were tabled rather than being approved for discussion in the plenary session.

That was followed by two federal policy panels: one on First Nations issues featuring Jean Crowder and Lawrence Joseph, and one on rural issues with presentations from Nathan Cullen, Ian McCreary and Nettie Wiebe. The speech of the afternoon was undoubtedly Joseph's, as the NDP's newly-nominated candidate for Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River mixed wit with a strong message on the need to recognize and understand First Nations rights and interests. Joseph's message in turn meshed nicely with Jack Layton's subsequent speech, which included a focus on the NDP's efforts to build links with First Nations across the country (and the star candidates who are emerging as a result).

The day will wrap up with a Pub Night (which I'll be headed to shortly), with tomorrow's events including several provincial policy panels, the leader's address, a caucus bear pit and the first plenary session. So stay tuned, as there's plenty yet to come.

Saskatchewan NDP 2010 Resolutions - Affordable Warmth Benefit

Let's fit in one more of the resolutions for discussion this weekend, this time an idea to help mitigate against the costs of one of the more obvious costs of Saskatchewan living:

SD1. BE IT RESOLVED that a New Democrat government would create a two
part Seniors’ Affordable Warmth Benefit. The first part would be a universal benefit paid to all seniors during the months requiring heating designed to cover a significant portion of heating costs for senior households. The second part would be an income-tested benefit paid to low-income seniors during the months requiring heating designed to cover the remainder of heating costs for low-income senior households.
- University of Saskatchewan Young New Democrats

Now, I'm not sure that a standalone payment would be my first choice of policies to deal with affordable heating - as targeted funding for actual heating measures (particularly environmentally-friendly ones which may reduce future costs) would seem to promise more return on the province's investment. But it's definitely worth discussing what the province can do to lower the basic cost of living - and the resolution looks to make for a good starting point.

Saskatchewan NDP 2010 Resolutions - Revitalizing Agriculture

I noted yesterday this week should make for an ideal opportunity to discuss some of the Saskatchewan NDP's convention resolutions. With that in mind, let's take a look at a higher-level resolution which looks to tie in nicely with the NDP's efforts to renew its rural support base:

AT4. WHEREAS the survival of rural Saskatchewan is directly related to the size of the resident population; and

WHEREAS increasingly, capital costs are limiting the ability of young farmers to enter the industry;

BE IT RESOLVED that the New Democratic Party develop a policy and relevant programs to stimulate the entry of a new generation of young farmers to enter the industry in a viable manner.

- Kindersley NDP

What's particularly interesting about the resolution is that if it's adopted and the associated policy developed, the result could be to expose some significant disconnects between the Sask Party government and its support base.

After all, the Sask Party went out of its way to replace the province's wheat sheaf logo on the theory that it didn't want people to focus on agriculture as a defining attribute of the province. And there's nothing in its current direction which involves direct support for rural Saskatchewan, as the theory of allowing markets to decide where people end up living seems to have outweighed any sense that the government should work to encourage rural development. Which means that rural voters who have primarily voted for the Sask Party over the past decade-plus have nothing but scorn to show for their support.

Of course, it's true enough that a viable Saskatchewan economy has to include more than agriculture - and the NDP will undoubtedly address that in its other policy ideas. But it's likely equally true that rural Saskatchewan needs a broader and more sound agricultural base in order to sustain itself. And absent some action from a new provincial government, there's no end to the cycle of corporate consolidation in sight.

Which means that the NDP would seem to have an obvious opening to challenge the Sask Party's lack of interest in taking responsibility for the development of rural Saskatchewan. And the Kindersley NDP's resolution may offer an ideal way to frame that effort so as to appeal to voters who don't want to see their communities erode.

Saskatchewan NDP 2010 Resolutions - Free Membership

For those waiting in suspense to find out whether the Saskatchewan NDP would manage to top the Sask Party in terms of member interest, the Commonwealth has the answer (warning: PDF) - as the NDP has narrowly edged out the governing party's number of policy ideas by a margin of 73 to 5. And all this before it actually goes through the bulk of its policy development process.

But of course, the point of resolutions goes far beyond just the count. So let's spend some time in the week leading up to the convention discussing some of the more interesting ones put forward. For today I'll stick to posting a resolution on a topic which I've wondered about before, and encourage reader discussion in comments. But I'll deal with some of the resolutions in more detail as the week goes on.

So without any further ado, here's one of Regina Dewdney's resolutions on party affairs, dealing with the idea of free party membership:

PA2. WHEREAS membership cost should not be an impediment to involvement or membership in the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan; and

WHEREAS the system costs more to operate and administer than the membership fee;

BE IT RESOLVED that the New Democratic Party explore the benefits of moving to a registration system without a cost, similar to those used by political parties in the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Executive of the Party make recommendations through the Policy Development process of proposed changes at the 2011 convention.
- Regina Dewdney