Having attended the NDP provincial convention last weekend in Saskatoon, I couldn’t help but note the enthusiasm and excitement on display from some 600 or more delegates participating in this event.
This sense of almost anarchistic delight may have found its origins in the relative “absence” of politically correct seminar workshops emphasizing party orthodoxy being replaced by a “Leadership in Waiting” theme highlighting the distinct possibility that by 2028 we may see three provincial governments – Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario – finally flying the NDP banner in front of their respective legislatures.
In her address to the convention, Ontario’s NDP leader Marit Stiles utilized her Newfoundland political upbringing to eloquently summarize events that have occurred in this province that have conclusively demonstrated that Scott Moe’s government is no longer capable of addressing the concerns of all Saskatchewanians, preferring instead to supercharge their distrust of one another when one resides in a rural setting, while their children and others seek the comforts of urban existence. Naheed Nenshi, Alberta’s NDP Leader, on the other hand made obvious to the delegates that despite his being constantly disrespected for holding his Ismaili Muslim faith, his sense of community and service only serves to illustrate the extremists’ insecurity when challenging individual achievement and ideals.
Nenshi brought to our attention the reality that the so-called “Progressive” Conservative no longer exists, especially in Saskatchewan and Alberta, where no one would dare to compare Scott Moe nor Danielle Smith with those that deserve such political accord as given Alberta’s former Premier Lougheed. In particular, Premier Moe knows full well that his standing as leader of the Sask Party is waning, and that the increasing attacks instigated by NDP Leader Carla Beck or even caucus member Meara Conway only exacerbate his failures. Nothing, however, can match the depths of political division into which Moe was prepared to stray when his government invited Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed to the Marble Palace on September 23rd for discussion on topics such as canola exports and ” opportunities to expand technological cooperation and market diversification” with a “friendly” nation.
Given the necessity of Canada to expand its market penetration beyond the reaches of an American neighbour touting its economic superiority and need to control the governmental aspirations of Canadians, initiating such discussion may seem “reasonable” – except that this is Israel; a nation that has had more than 150 resolutions raised on the floor of the United Nations expressing concern as to its international behaviour and the Palestinian people in particular. Having now voiced its support for the creation of a Palestinian state, Canada has implicitly made it known that it no longer regards Israel as being a “friendly” nation in the fashion Premier Moe wants us to believe exists.
In a column I wrote on Nov. 29, 2023, I cited Israeli media who begged to understand just how the Israeli government’s highly touted intelligence network could have possibly missed rumors of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on an Israeli outpost such an attack forthcoming. Equally concerning to the Israeli people was the fact that the response to this Hamas atrocity would find its leadership controlled by three individuals now accused of war crimes by the United Nations: Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who refuses to support the concept of a Palestinian nation, and whom Israelis as a whole believe used knowledge of the impending attack to further his anti-Palestinian agenda, Bezalel Smotrich, a staunch supporter of settler expansion and “voluntary migration” of Gaza’s population, and Itimar Ben-Gvir, himself having been convicted of supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism.
While the NDP caucus may have had no objection to the Israeli Ambassador attending legislative proceedings on Sept. 23, delegates from Regina Coronation Park and the Regina District Labour Council felt that the approach taken by the Saskatchewan Party in treating this event as being of star quality and a moral insult, resulting in the passage of a vaguely worded resolution condemning Scott Moe’s tone deafness for referring to Israel as a “friendly” nation, when in fact it was more truly “a regime known to be unapologetic for committing genocide and apartheid.”
Premier Moe’s reaction to the motions passage was both gloating and self-righteous; to him, “the NDP’s emergency motion attacks Israel,…does nothing to bring peace to the region, and it does nothing to support Saskatchewan people,” then adding that “As Premier, I will always look for opportunities to support Saskatchewan producers and businesses by strengthening our relationships with TRUSTED international partners…”
In discussing the Premier’s approach to this issue, Scott Moe seems to have allowed his party’s current polling grievances interfere with his sense of reality. Even MAGA conservatives no longer “trust” Netanyahu, as Israel broke the first negotiated ceasefire, adding a brutal policy of food and medical supply denial following the second arrangement’s failure – only to ironically note that President Trump is alleged to have sworn at Premier Netanyahu for his disparaging and “negative” comments following Hamas leadership agreeing to the terms of the current ceasefire.
What Premier Moe fails to realize is that for a Jewish people having faced pogroms and attacks against their very existence, the actions taken by the government of Israel since Oct. 7, 2023 hang like a guilty verdict of indifference to the plight of the Palestinian people, with over 68,000 dead and another 170,000 wounded or permanently handicapped.
While a decreasing minority of Israelis and Jewish people world-wide maintain support for the operation being undertaken by the IDF for Hamas leadership still demanding complete annihilation of the state of Israel. Such militarized counter-resistance is simply “bad” history repeating itself, in a fashion that neither Jesus nor Mohammed would condone. What the Jewish people now must seek is a rekindling of their own desire for the continuation of a democratic movement, and re-recognition of their own humanitarian efforts that saw many of their number threatened with a noose in the manner similar to how black Americans were threatened when fighting for their right to citizenship in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
In Saskatchewan, our Jewish brethren deserve such consideration as a restoration of a faith in democracy. NO citizen should not be subjected to the distortion of fact attempted by Premier Moe, especially when that party, governed and managed by our premier, is itself well stocked with those all too willing to deny rights to women, or condemns children seeking reprieve from the bullying actions of those seeing themselves as “superior” forcing them to seek a new identity for the continuation of their very existence.
In short, Scott Moe should be ashamed that he again has led the charge for his supporters to seek power in and of their governing, as opposed to providing a government that represents all, including those “branded” as being DEI.
