Mandryk: Sask. Party needs get on right path

Murray Mandryk
Political Columnist

You’d think it would work the opposite way, but the longer you are in power, the tougher it is to figure out what you’re doing wrong.

That’s the big problem for the Saskatchewan Party that will have been in power for 15 years by the time 2022 ends. Unfortunately, it’s not the only problem it’s facing this coming year.

We are still in the throes of a global pandemic, and the decisions are getting more complicated rather than easier.

Consider the heat Premier Scott Moe and his government took prior to Christmas for being the only province not to implement severe restrictions to fight COVID-19’s Omicron variant.

If there is a legitimate criticism here, it’s likely the result of Moe and his government being rather oblivious last spring and summer to signs of a coming fourth COVID-19 that produced Saskatchewan’s deadliest by October.

This, too, reeks of an aging government that’s become a little too comfortable in the notion it has all the answers.

But in the case of the Omicron variant and what to do about the inevitable fifth wave, it actually does become rather complicated rather quickly.

For example, Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia issued some of their toughest restrictions before Christmas since the beginning of the pandemic, largely because they were already experiencing record daily cases. Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. — also experiencing a rise in daily cases — were quick to join in with their own tough restrictions to fight a variant said to be four to eight times more contagious than the Delta variant that hammered Saskatchewan particularly hard.

But the daily case in Saskatchewan was in the neighbour of 50 to 60 new cases a day — roughly, one-tenth of what they were during the fourth-wave peak in this province. Was immediately shutting down things needed or even the right response?

Sure, some will point to inevitably case increases in January as proof positive that Moe wrong for not soon on a the contagious Omicron variant some say may double cases every three to five days. (Although it seems bizarre anyone would be cheering for this scenario to happen.)

But the book is still out on how virulent this strain will be and how many hospitalizations and ICU cases it may actually produce.

Moreover, imposing stricter restrictions like not allowing unvaccinated people to gather with vaccinated people for Christmas dinner would be impossible to enforce and would likely create a backlash that would make the unvaccinated even more stubborn about getting a needle.

Finally, we know from experience not every COVID-19 wave hits as hard or hits every place as hard.

For Moe and his Sask. Party government, moving early on Omicron was a bigger dilemma than some think.

There again, it’s rather hard to have all that much sympathy for a government that made some huge mistakes in 2021 and didn’t exactly issue an unequivocal apology for making them.

This, after all, was the same Sask. Party government that was telling us in May, June and July that it could never require its citizens to carry the proof-of-vaccination now in your wallet or on your smartphone because it would create two-tiered citizenship and would be an invasion of health privacy. Now, it takes credit for doing exactly what it said it wouldn’t/couldn’t do.

Such mixed messaging and sometimes outright bad messaging in 2021 plagued the Sask. Party 14 years removed from its opposition days when it was more skilled at listening to legitimate public concerns.

In 2022, it desperately needs to rediscover those skills. Otherwise, it will continue to have a very rough time selling the tough choices it will have to make.