tank: polls suggests sask. tops in separatist sentiment if liberals win
3 minute read
mock votes are counted by buffalo party candidate tim kasprick, dressed as a comedic alter ego "timothy trump", and buffalo party leader phil zajac during a private event held by the buffalo party to discuss the idea of saskatchewan becoming america's 51st state.
kayle neis
/
regina leader-post
saskatchewan leads the nation. not in economic growth or housing starts. in support for separation if the liberals win the april 28 election.
so suggests an angus reid institute survey of 2,400 online panellists conducted march 20 to 24. the survey lacks a margin of error since it is not a random sample of the general population.
but the results certainly stoke separatist sentiment while american president donald trump voices direct threats to canadian sovereignty.
angus reid found that 20 per cent of the 125 panellists surveyed in saskatchewan would vote for the province to become its own country. that’s higher than 15 per cent nationally, but lower than in alberta (25 per cent) and quebec (28 per cent).
yet when asked the same question should the liberals form the next federal government, the saskatchewan response jumps to 33 per cent, higher than alberta and quebec (30 per cent) and nationally (20 per cent). next door in manitoba, only 12 per cent would vote to separate.
just one-quarter of saskatchewan respondents believe “their province is respected by the rest of the country” and only 31 per cent think the province is treated fairly by the federal government, the fewest in any province.
and saskatchewan respondents support alberta premier danielle smith, who has faced criticism for engaging with far-right american supporters of annexing canada, more than anywhere else, including her home province.
just over half of saskatchewan respondents say smith is “defending her country by keeping an open dialogue.” conversely, just over half of all respondents believe smith is “betraying her country.”
just a month ago, it seemed easy to dismiss the 40 or so folks who attended a buffalo party fundraiser in regina centred on a debate about whether canada should become america’s 51st state, as trump has repeatedly urged.
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and, while angus reid observes that western separatist sentiment has apparently declined from six years ago, it remains unnervingly high in this province amid the global turmoil and economic chaos and coercion from the trump regime.
yet saskatchewan premier scott moe needed repeated prodding this week before he would say he opposed separatism.
as seems to be his practice, moe seems more concerned with the far-right minority (which is surely where separatist sentiment lies) than the moderate majority, in this case the two-thirds the poll suggests support canada.
he claims his opposition to the federal liberals is based on “policies,” but that rings hollow given that there appears to be scant differences between mark carney’s liberals and pierre poilievre’s conservatives.
some observers suggest carney has copied key planks of poilievre’s platform, most notably the decision to end the federal consumer carbon tax, which moe has long railed against as the root of all evil. instead of spiking the football, moe went in search of another issue to fan the flames.
he abruptly decided the province’s own industrial carbon tax had emerged as the new chief villain and paused collecting it, setting up what he presumably hopes will be a new conflict.
yet moe continues to collect a 15-cent-a-litre gas tax, so he obviously only opposes taxing hydrocarbons when he sees political benefit.
moe identified chinese tariffs on canola oil and meal as the province’s “most urgent” trade issue. but poilievre lobbied for canada’s provocative 100 per cent tariffs on electric vehicles from china that started the dispute.
you really need to squint to see major policy differences between the two main parties, particularly on economic issues that could affect saskatchewan. both support new pipelines amid growing public enthusiasm.
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yet a third of poll respondents seem to think a re-elected liberal government qualifies as reason enough to separate.
and a saskatchewan party government that crows about its economic record, despite the implied repression from ottawa, seems more than willing to pander to separatists at the worst possible time.
with the carbon tax axed and support for pipelines high, moe is missing his moment to become a constructive crusader for canada, instead of a myopic partisan complainer.
phil tank is the digital opinion editor at the saskatoon starphoenix.
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