Tom Lukiwski, Meet Mike Chisholm

In another example of highbrow, totally appropriate behaviour from the Conservatives, SP MLA Mike Chisholm called NDP MLA Deb Higgins a "dumb bitch". Not at some coffee shop or a bar, or even a closed-door backroom party where SP members were drinking to celebrate their disparagement of women and homosexuals, but in an intergovernmental affairs and justice committee meeting. Classy.

Michael Chisholm, a Saskatchewan Party MLA for Cut Knife-Turtleford, has resigned as a legislative secretary after calling the NDP's Deb Higgins "a dumb bitch."

Chisholm apologized for the comments that he made towards Higgins on Wednesday in a legislative committee.

"I have no excuse for this remark," he said Thursday in the legislature. "I was wrong and it shouldn't have been thought or said."
(Saskatoon StarPhoenix, May 8/2008)

And yet, it was. So much for a man known for his reputation for professional conduct. He even mentions Wall's lip-service to not letting people hear you saying stupid shit like this, but so often in these cases we see how a wolf in lamb's clothing is still a wolf. The only thing we're missing here is a statement that he'll work for the rest of his career to redeem himself for these remarks.

I know Deb Higgins. She's hardly a dumb bitch. She's polite and intelligent, and Saskatchewan people of all political stripes ought to be proud to have someone like her representing them. Which is more than I can say for you, Mike.

Deb would never reduce herself to your level. But I'm not Deb Higgins, you stupid sack of shit. Every time the topic of women in politics gets raised, I'm going to make sure your remarks are held up high as an example of the barriers, difficulties, and double-standards that exist.

At least Wall did the right thing by firing your sorry ass.

Edit: The Regina Mom has a similar perspective, though she tends to rag more on the NDP than I do.

Edit: Giant Political Mouse has the text from Hansard and a video. But unlike me, he refrains from swearing at Mr. Chisholm.

Edit: Fixed formatting.

Gee Lorne, Government is Hard!

In another surprising move, the SP pulled the Humboldt Court of Queen's Bench when they learned that being the government is harder than just shouting a whole bunch of crazy shit every day from opposition benches:

The Saskatchewan Party government is cutting Court of Queen's Bench services in Humboldt, a move the party decried as an attack on rural Saskatchewan when it was proposed under the previous NDP government eight years ago.
(Saskatoon StarPhoenix, May 1/08)

The article goes on to say that when the NDP tried to do this, the SP claimed there was no consultation and that it was an attack on rural Saskatchewan.

So, surely, now that the SP is pulling the governmental strings, they set things right. Right?

[Don Morgan] acknowledged there was no consultation with the municipality or local legal community before the decision was made in this year's budget.

Oops.

We'll see if Wall will be reaching out to rural Saskatchewan as much as he's reaching out to labour.

More Arrogance Than Action

In last Saturday's column, Mandryk writes about the current animosity in the legislature. Now to be fair, he does give a pretty solid assessment of the current state of affairs:

The source of this problem at the Saskatchewan legislature appears to be the perfect cross-section of arrogance and entitlement from each side. We're witnessing a daily orgy of self-proclaimed intellectual superiority that's accomplishing nothing other than a lot of bad Opposition scrutiny and a lot of bad governance.

I haven't really complained here too much about the NDP's lack of direction in opposition, but they do need to get their act together. Where are the questions about equalization? Where are the questions about Privatize Saskatchewan? Or the environment? Or housing? Or Station 20? Does anyone remember "patient of the day"? It's time for our Opposition to feed the government some of its own medicine.

As for the bad governance, well, I think I've made opinion pretty clear about that. It's as though the Saskies have no idea about what governing means. Even so far as day-to-day legislative procedure -- do they have any clue? Have they been involved in this process at all in the last four years? Are they going to grow up and stop acting like a bunch of 16-year-olds whose parents are out of town and have left the lock off the liquor cabinet? This is a party that existed only to seize government, and the evidence is plain: they knew how to run a campaign, but they don't know what to do now that they're in the big chairs.

But I do think Mandryk dropped the ball by suggesting only the NDP believes the voters got it wrong last fall.

Well I hate to break it to you, Murray, but the voters did get it wrong last fall. I think we saw pretty clearly that Saskatchewan voters wanted a change of government -- for whatever reason -- but they weren't entirely convinced that the Saskies deserved a majority. I had people ask me how minority governments work last fall -- people who ought to know better. So I don't think a lot of voters knew that you couldn't have a minority government in a two-party system, and with the Liberals pretty much a non-issue, that meant a Saskie majority.

If anything, this should point to the need for civics classes in every Saskatchewan high school, as well as public forums prior to elections that explain how government works. And with their apparent ignorance about governing, it would probably help to put the Saskie MLAs through these classes too.

Edit: Fixed formatting and a typo.