Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2007
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2007 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Murray Mandryk

POLITICS HAS ITS OWN FRINGE FESTIVAL

Worried that you won't be given enough choice on the next provincial 
election ballot?

Don't be. No fewer than eight registered political parties submitted 
returns for 2006, according to Elections Saskatchewan.

They included: Green Party of Saskatchewan; New Democratic Party, 
Sask. Section; Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan; 
Saskatchewan Heritage Party; Saskatchewan Liberal Association; 
Saskatchewan Marijuana Party; Saskatchewan Party, and; Western 
Independence Party of Saskatchewan (WIP).

So why are we seeing a rise in fringe parties, spanning the political 
spectrum from the far left to the far right? Does it make any sense, 
given that Saskatchewan politics seems to be a two-horse race, with 
the one horse -- the Saskatchewan Party -- enjoying about a 25-length 
lead over the NDP?

The above thoughts cross one's mind because of how vocal some of the 
fringe parties have become this summer.

First, there was the case of Wawota student Kieran King, who was 
suspended for leaving his small town school and organizing a protest 
after being disciplined for sharing his views on the potential use of 
marijuana. Those who didn't know that even Saskatchewan had its own 
wing of the national Marijuana Party may have been surprised how 
capable a single-issue party is of glomming on to what quickly became 
a national issue of free speech.

And yesterday we saw the release of the platform of the Western 
Independence Party of Saskatchewan -- a party dedicated to the 
establishment of an independent western Canadian nation consisting of 
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Territories.

University of Regina political science professor Ken Rasmussen said 
fringe parties have existed throughout Saskatchewan's history and 
notes that's how the CCF started. And it's even more common to see 
such protest parties emerge when there appears to be a groundswell of 
support to kick out an established party.

This is the similarity that the WIP likely shares with the Marijuana 
Party or even the Green Party, Rasmussen said. All represent a 
comparatively small protest voice of those who feel disenfranchised. 
All feel they might be able to emulate the Saskatchewan Party's 
success from non-existence to the cusp of power in a few short years.

But while the Marijuana Party or the Green Party have been 
single-issue parties, the WIP is a classic mix of right-wing populism 
of the separatist reform movement mixed with a bit of libertarianism 
and rural boosterism that speaks directly to a specific region of the 
province, Rasmussen said.

Noting the formation of the separatist Western Canada Concept Party 
in 1970s, Rasmussen said it's also no small coincidence that such 
movements tend to "rise with oil prices".

Certainly, with consecutive federal Liberal and now Conservative 
governments failing to take seriously historical grievances on 
natural resources ownership issues -- this time, in Stephen Harper's 
failure to abide by his promise to remove non-renewable resources 
from the equalization formula -- small factions in the West begin to 
question the benefits of confederation.

But Rasmussen also noted that -- like in the early 1980s when Grant 
Devine's right-wing Progressive Conservatives were on the rise -- 
rural Saskatchewan fears becoming even more isolated as the 
Saskatchewan Party begins to moderate to appeal to more 
liberal/centre urban voters.

This is evident in the WIP platform, released Tuesday to every weekly 
and daily newspaper in the province. The platform stresses 
traditional right-wing democratic reform and economic concepts like 
referendum votes that would override provincial laws, recall 
legislation for MLAs (based on 35 per cent of all constituents 
signing a petition), fixed election dates, legislated balanced 
budgets, a single income tax rate, abolition of all employment equity 
and affirmative action programs for all government departments and 
development of nuclear power to address global warming.

But it also hammers away at more localized issues like the 
privatization of Saskatchewan liquor stores (but not major Crown 
corporations like SaskTel, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, and SGI), education 
tax reform (eliminating the tax on all farmland except for the home 
quarter) and repeal of the Liquor Consumption Tax (that's an 
"unacceptable burden for struggling hotels, especially in small town 
Saskatchewan").

In short, it's an appeal to the disenfranchised who see now -- a time 
of potential political change -- as the right time to make a 
political statement.

- - Mandryk is the political columnist for the Leader-Post.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom