Saskatchewan Party Cancelled Due to Lack of Interest

The Star-Phoenix editorial board is duly scathing about the Sask Party's complete lack of vision. But it's worth putting into perspective just how remarkable it is that the Sask Party's convention this weekend is apparently featuring a mere five resolutions in total - with the one which would actually represent the most significant policy change having been pre-shot-down for the convention's convenience.

By way of comparison, the 2009 Saskatchewan NDP convention dealt with 7 resolutions...from its Rainbow Pride Committee alone. Which is in addition to 4 from its Saskatoon Rivers constituency. And 4 more from its Saskatoon Eastview constituency. And another 4 from its Saskatoon Southeast constituency. And yet another 4 from SEIUWest.

And it isn't only NDP-friendly constituencies and groups who offered plenty of substantive policy proposals for discussion. The NDP lost by nearly 60 points in Cypress Hills, by 47 points in Estevan and by roughly 30 points in Cut Knife-Turtleford in 2007. Yet those three NDP riding associations between them provided more ideas for their party's consideration than the entire Saskatchewan Party can apparently muster.

In fact, the 2009 Saskatchewan NDP convention had four separate categories of resolution, each featuring at least seven separate resolutions which were then prioritized by panels to be considered by the plenary session. And that's before the party engages in a policy renewal process whose first public meetings featured dozens of suggestions for topic areas, to say nothing of the number of specific policy proposals likely to result.

Of course, there isn't another party in the province even close to matching that level of member interest. But it isn't just the NDP which seems to be able to muster some significant policy interest at its conventions.

Take the Greens, who passed five resolutions at their 2005 convention...on the issue of health care alone. And a cursory look at their issue pages signals that they tend to address 20+ resolutions at any given policy convention. Likewise, while the Libs don't seem to have much by way of convention documentation online, they and their much-derided turnout in 2009 managed to deal with a full statement of principles as well as at least one headline-grabbing policy last year.

All of which is to say that the Sask Party's nonexistent list of resolutions hints at the party being nothing more than an empty shell from a policy standpoint - even compared to the parties which can't even put together enough interest to win a single seat. And while Wall and company may hope they can raise enough corporate money to make up for the fact that the sum total of their members' ideas can be counted on one hand, it's hard to see how that balance can be sustainable for long.