Barring the most unexpected upset in Saskatchewan political history we will be seeing this week a Saskatchewan Party government carry on with a fourth term.
And in the winner-take-all world of politics it becomes easy to write off any misgivings with the winning party as irrelevant.
But maybe that鈥檚 why we are always so frustrated with our politicians and the political process. Maybe this is where our problems begin.
Of course, the problem is that there are no easy fixes.
If an election doesn鈥檛 produce a minority government or at least a very close race, governments wind up pretty much doing what they want.
As has been previously mentioned in this space, the Sask. Party went into this election having won 31 seats in the 2016 campaign by 2,500 votes or more. On only six occasions in the 115-year of our province has a party that won a seat by 2,500 votes or more then lost that seat in the next election.
Unseating government was always a hopeless unrealistic for the NDP. And it can surely be argued that the New Democrat campaign didn鈥檛 do all that much help its cause.
Many will legitimately argue that the NDP didn鈥檛 deserve to win because it virtually wrote off half the seats in the provinces before the campaign started.
Sure, the NDP ran candidates in all 61 seats 鈥� many of which deserve credit for putting up a feisty fight in rural seats where some of them didn鈥檛 stand much of a chance.
If we are ever to change the system to something better, it likely begins with the re-establishing the recognition that anyone who puts up his or her name for public office deserves respect for doing so.
That said, it did not go unnoticed that leader Ryan Meili鈥檚 Ford campaign van hardly veered off Highway 11 between Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert. And if it did, it was only for short detour to Moose Jaw.
One can accuse Sask. Party leader Scott Moe of pretty much the same tactics, but why would the Sask. Party spend much time in seats it was guaranteed to win?
Moreover, the NDP鈥檚 鈥淧eople First鈥� campaign can rightly be criticized for offering rather little to people in agriculture, oil and mining that have also been hard hit by the COVID-19 economic downturn.
It鈥檚 costly $2.1 billion in new spending was largely aimed at increased hiring in schools, hospitals and nursing but also at those economic disadvantaged. By its own admission, the NDP platform would leave Saskatchewan with massive billion-dollar-a-year deficits and still $600 million short of a surplus after four years.
But maybe it鈥檚 about here where we need to begin and rethink what we want out of a process that leaves us stuck with the lesser of evils after an election.
After all, the Sask. Party promises of only slightly smaller deficits and $849 million in new spending over the four years is clearly deserved of the criticism it received.
And we will soon be left paying for all this 鈥� a road we鈥檝e been down before as recently as four years ago.
After the 2016 election that saw far less generous platforms from the two major parties, we were hit home with 2017 Saskatchewan budget that hiked taxes and tripled the deficit to $1.2 billion.
It hammered us by increasing the provincial sales tax to six per cent and broadening it, shuttering the Saskatchewan Transportation Company and doing away with the 44-year-old Saskatchewan Hearing Aid Plan that supported preschool children with cochlear implants.
It wasn鈥檛 what voters signed up for, but there鈥檚 now a very realistic possibility 鈥� with a large majority Sask. Party government 鈥� we鈥檒l be in for this again.
Until we can somehow improve government accountability, it鈥檚, unfortunately, the system we鈥檙e stuck with.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics since 1983.
