tank: saskatchewan needs to chill on separation and enjoy a drink
3 minute read
a steady stream of voters walked into knox united church to vote in the saskatchewan provincial election on oct. 25, 2024.
michelle berg
/
saskatoon starphoenix
enjoy your favourite alcoholic beverage while you read this, saskatchewan.
more than a century ago, in 1916, saskatchewan residents voted overwhelmingly to close liquor stores and, according to the saskatoon phoenix newspaper, eliminate “every vestige of the traffic in intoxicating drink in saskatchewan.”
in the absence of social media and given the limits of newspaper production, people were invited downtown at night in december to see live referendum results posted in the phoenix office windows.
that marked the last time saskatchewan people voted to directly influence government policy in a binding referendum. three more plebiscite questions on alcohol sale and consumption followed in 1920, 1924 and 1934. (as i learned back in journalism school, plebiscites are non-binding votes to gauge public opinion.)
in the last of these booze ballots, just 18 years after imposing prohibition, saskatchewan voted to allow the sale of beer by the glass in so-called parlours, which prompted the same temperance forces behind the prohibition vote to claim calamity loomed. so much for the lasting legacy of direct democracy.
later, saskatchewan set a new standard in democratic daffiness when two questions were put to voters in 1956: to pick a time zone for the entire province and to choose a time zone for their community. that yielded majority support for central standard time provincially and mountain standard time locally. (time for a drink, now that it’s legal.)
as a starphoenix headline said a full month after the time zone vote: “plebiscite shows voters confused.”
then there’s the hand grenade tossed by the outgoing grant devine government in 1991 when it sought people’s opinions on three subjects intended to hinder the incoming ndp regime of roy romanow.
in addition to massively backing the ndp in 1991, voters approved non-binding ballot questions supporting an end to public funding for abortion and to enact balanced budget legislation.
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one starphoenix letter writer noted the irony of devine asking about a balanced budget law after eight straight deficit budgets (and, i might add in hindsight, with full cynical knowledge of the dire fiscal mess his government was leaving behind).
the ndp determined early in its term that ending public funding for abortion would be illegal, which reportedly the devine government knew.
voters also in 1991 supported requiring a public vote for any changes to the canadian constitution — direct democracy on direct democracy.
and yet for all those public votes, we can purchase and consume alcohol in the land of living skies, we are not beset with a gazillion time zones, medicare still funds abortions and the saskatchewan party government habitually tables budgets as if balancing them is prohibited, not required.
so maybe a potential — but severely unlikely — vote on whether the province should separate from canada has generated more noise than it should.
the rules to force a non-binding plebiscite require 125,000 verifiable signatures. the unified grassroots group that is agitating for a vote had gathered about 3,600 signatories to an online petition as of tuesday.
even if a plebiscite was successfully initiated, which has never happened before, no government would be obliged to follow through on the results as we can see from previous votes.
as for convincing government to hold a binding referendum, that threshold is also stratospheric, requiring half of registered voters to approve a measure by 60 per cent to pass.
even if all these hurdles were overcome and saskatchewan voted to secede, the federal clarity act includes additional hindrances and the supreme court has ruled no province can unilaterally separate.
as for the appeal of independence, a new country of saskatchewan with just 1.25 million people would take a beating amid the current global turbulence.
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and those who want to join america are dreaming if they foresee full statehood. saskatchewan would become a territory — like puerto rico (3.2 million people) with potash.
saskatchewan’s ndp wants to double the number of signatures required to hold a separation plebiscite, but given the province’s history and all the other impediments, that looks like pointless political posturing.
phil tank is the digital opinion editor at the saskatoon starphoenix.
our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. for regina leader-post newsletters click here; for saskatoon starphoenix newsletters click here
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