Murray Mandryk: Harrison-Weekes spat offers insight into a Sask. Party problem

The audacity to admonish a government member was too much for Harrison and the rest of the Sask. Party caucus. Herein lies their problem.

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Published Apr 12, 2024 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 3 minute read

Government House Leader and Trade Minister Jeremy Harrison’s eagerness to defy Speaker Randy Weekes may speak to a bigger problem. Photo by KAYLE NEIS /Regina Leader-Post

When it comes to getting under the skin of Saskatchewan Party opponents, Government House leader Jeremy Harrison is certainly no slouch.

He can be very effective … but also rather irritating.

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Or so the NDP Opposition has found out in its dealings with the quarrelsome Trade and Export Development minister.

Harrison started with the Reform Party in 1996, before becoming a federal Conservative staffer. He was a Conservative MP from 2004 to 2006, before narrowly winning the Meadow Lake riding for the Sask. Party in 2007 that he has held ever since.

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He became House leader and a key senior minister under Premier Scott Moe after supporting the premiers’s 2017-18 Sask. Party leadership bid — a move Harrison made after entering, then quickly withdrawing from the party leadership race himself.

Essentially, Jeremy Harrison has been a career politician. He’s also become increasingly uber-partisan, not shy about creating enemies or belittling whomever might challenge him.

This may be where the bigger problem begins.

Consider this question period exchange — one that illustrates what the government will be running on this fall, but also what may be a problem for the Sask. Party when we head to the polls.

“The number one economic challenge that we are facing right now is a labour shortage, Mr. Speaker,” Harrison told the assembly on Monday. “We hear it day after day and over and over again from our business community — that they can’t find enough people to feel the jobs …

“Here’s what Deloitte had to say and Deloitte doesn’t lie, Mr. Speaker.”

Harrison went on to read the report on Saskatchewan’s “relatively strong performance compared to that of the rest of the country” driven by sizeable potash investment, solid population growth and relatively low household debt burdens.

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Really, Harrison was right and the NDP were cherry-picking lagging job numbers in the north.

But the problem is, he used the word “lie” in the legislature … now forbidden, even in an innocuous context. For that problem, Harrison can only blame himself.

For years, the Government House leader has sprung to his feet almost every day to complain about NDP MLAs suggesting government ministers were being “less than truthful … honest … forthright” or “inconsistent with the facts.” On Thursday, Deputy House Leader Lori Carr demanded NDP Leader Carla Beck apologize for saying the “public expects government to be honest.”

Yes, in the archaic, picayune and politically charged world of the Saskatchewan legislature, it’s now considered offensive to suggest politicians should be honest.

As such, Speaker Randy Weekes had little choice: “You know very well you can’t do indirectly what you can’t do directly,” Weekes reminded Harrison of what Harrison has so often reminded the Speaker. “Please stand up and withdraw and apologize.”

Well, Harrison did apologize … but in the most dismissive way imaginable, barely rising to his feet. This did not go over well with Weekes.

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“Stand up, please don’t slouch … disrespect for this institution,” growled Weekes. “Stand up.”

An audible gasp could be heard throughout the Sask. Party benches. Pearls were literally clutched.

The audacity to admonish a government member was too much for Harrison and the rest of the Sask. Party caucus. Herein lies their problem.

Yes, there is bad blood between Weekes and Harrison, made worse when the Speaker lost his party’s Biggar-Kindersley nomination to a new arrival. He didn’t get much caucus support from Harrison or many in caucus.

But in this incident, Weekes was doing his job in the fair-minded and neutral way his black robe requires.

Evidently, that’s problematic in a Sask. Party government that has come to believe it alone is entitled to set the rules.

Regardless of whether it’s the federal government charging the carbon price on natural gas home heat or “activist” judges suggesting legal problems with Bill 137, this Sask. Party has dismissed virtually anyone challenging its supposed authority.

And Harrison has been one of those setting this tone that suggests entitlement and arrogant disrespect.

It’s the wrong message in an election year.

Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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