Whatever your political stripe, it’s not easy or comfortable to stand by and see one’s premier humiliated, as happened recently when premiers Romanow and Doer of Saskatchewan and Manitoba respectively led a delegation to Ottawa looking for aid for embattled farmers.
When the premier of the province is humiliated, by extension the province and the people in it are diminished.
That feeling came through strong and clear from the members of the trip to Ottawa delegation and the press corps accompanying it.
When premier Romanow appeared for the Thursday noon press conference at which he announced that the federal government had put forth new numbers in his meeting with the prime minister, Romanow was calm and statesmanlike.
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Those who have covered and watched him over the years at home in Saskat-chewan, however, saw beyond the facade to the stiff stance and the clenched teeth.
This was a premier who was at once angry, hurt and, yes, humiliated. The next day, he let it all hang out, speaking of phantom numbers and saying, bluntly, “I don’t believe the numbers exist.”
As we have seen in the days since, the federal government has produced numbers that show a dramatic projected increase in farm income in Saskatchewan, from a negative $48 million to somewhere in the order of plus $360 million.
There is still disbelief in many circles that the numbers are accurate.
The immediate reaction to the announcement in Ottawa that the delegation would go home without so much as the promise of aid was a questioning of national unity.
Romanow himself had, after all, characterized the problem as a national one when he said, before meeting with the prime minister, “the future is what’s at stake here, what kind of country we want to have.”
Many delegates were angry, questioning the West’s place in Confederation and saying they understood the feelings of alienation and marginalization felt by many in Quebec.
Romanow and others have vowed that the delegation will see the fight through to the end.
The group was stronger and more determined at the conclusion of the trip than at the beginning.
Part of the thanks must go to the prime minister, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief and others in the federal cabinet who either paid lip service to the crisis or denied that it exists.
We in the West do not take the humiliation of our leaders lightly.
