Political environment can change quickly

It used to be in Saskatchewan politics that you were what you were born. Or even what your father and grandfather were born.

The saying a Liberal is a Liberal is a Liberal (or a New Democrat or a Conservative) had real meaning.

Not any longer.

Saskatchewan politics is at a watershed and with a provincial election not all that far off the shakedown will be interesting.

New Democrats will stay New Democrats. That’s 99.44 percent certain.

The Conservative and Reform vote, barring disasters, natural or otherwise, will go to the Saskatchewan Party.

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The big question is, which way will the traditional Liberal vote go?

It’s not just political pundits who are asking.

A lot of Liberals are doing some pretty deep soul-searching and have been since the caucus, in its wisdom, axed former leader Lynda Haverstock.

Present leader Dr. Jim Melenchuk just hasn’t caught on with a lot of Liberals. That’s probably because a lot of Liberals just don’t know the good doctor. In our part of the world, in west-central Saskatchewan, he’s been startlingly noticeable by his absence. You don’t gain votes that way.

Which leaves a lot of Liberals asking if they will vote for the party or if they would rather defeat the present government and vote for the Saskatchewan Party which, while new and having gone through some severe growing pains, is gaining in credibility and respect.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when few gave the Saskatchewan Party so much as a snowball’s chance in you-know-where of defeating the government.

Premier Romanow should have called an election at that point. He would have won hands down, in the process quite possibly knocking the Liberals off the political map and leaving the province with a clear two-party system.

It wasn’t meant to be.

And the honeymoon, while not over, has run into troubled waters.

We’ve had a budget recently which was not all that bad considering where the province has come from financially.

Certainly, a more than two percent cut in personal income tax and more money spent on the province’s roads and highways would have put voters in a mood to be more forgiving of the current Messergate affair. One would almost think we were back in the good old Conservative days: ask a top civil servant to resign, then say he should be paid $300,000 for going.