Unmaking Saskatchewan

In 1999 Brad wall was elected for the first time as a Sask Party MLA. Within 8 years, Wall would be premier. A free market capitalist and charismatic salesman, over the next decade Wall would weave a new narrative for saskatchewan to understand itself, changing the province's political culture forever.

In the 1990s Saskatchewan was in almost as dire a position as it had been during the Great Depression. The province was on the verge of bankruptcy, people were leaving in droves, the PC party was collapsing under the weight of the fraud scandal, the Liberals were in freefall, and the NDP, led by Roy Romanow, was slashing services to the bone. The collapse of the PCs and Liberals, coupled with the NDP’s hard right turn away from everything it had ever claimed to stand for created the conditions for the rise of the party we live under today. First in a three-part series on the Saskatchewan Party. 

In 1982 Saskatchewan elected the second Conservative government in the province's history. By the time the dust settled nine years later the province is $12 billion in debt, 12 members of the Devine government are convicted of fraud, and the Progressive Conservatives cease to exist as a political force in Saskatchewan ever again. Alex talks with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Saskatchewan director Simon Enoch about the Devine era and its legacy, which haunts the province to this day.

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.

Evangelical Christians have impacted the social and political fabric of Saskatchewan for over a century, from fur-trade era missionaries to the temperance movement to the anti-trans "parent's rights" legislation. At the same time, the movement in Canada has tended towards moderation in comparison to their counterparts in the U.S. This episode examines the history of evangelicals in Saskatchewan and Canada and how the rise of Trump and the COVID era has put new energy into Canada's Christian right.

Sources:

This U.S.-based ‘hate group’ is using a shadowy network of lawyers and doctors to infiltrate Canada


How Canadian evangelicalism is reinventing purity culture as ‘pro-women’


Canada’s marginal ‘Christian right’


Trinity Western loses fight for Christian law school as court rules limits on religious freedom 'reasonable'

Exorcism at Sask. children's Bible camp could be criminal, say experts

Fact Sheet: Public Opinion on Abortion

The evangelical movement is becoming increasingly salient in Saskatchewan politics, most recently with the passage of the anti-trans "parents' rights" legislation passed in fall 2023, legislation that had substantial backing from evangelical churches and organizations. Alex talks with Dallas Verity, a Regina resident who was raised in the church and worked as a youth pastor before leaving the church after coming to question its reactionary doctrines.

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.

The Sask United Party was registered as a political party in Saskatchewan in November 2022 and since then they've espoused a deeply fascist politic. SUP leader, Nadine Wilson, left the Sask Party caucus in September 2021 after lying about being vaccinated. The party ran its first candidate, oil executive and Evangelical Christian Jon Hromek, in the Lumsden Morse byelection in August 2023. On this episode Alex digs into Wilson and Hromek and unpacks the party's constitution, platform, and propaganda.

Find us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.

More like GONE Gormley. On November 24th conservative hack and area goblin John Gormley will go off the airwaves for good after a quarter century of bloviating from the Rawlco studio. Jeremy Davis joins Alex to talk about Gormley’s legacy. Rest in piss, John!

From the anti-trans "parents' rights" bill to the rise of the Sask United Party, the province is moving aggressively to the right. People are increasingly using the term fascism to describe what they're seeing. But fascism is a specific type of right wing politics, and it's not a term to be used lightly. So Alex dug in to the political philosophy of fascism to figure out whether the fash in Sask are really ascendant.


Sources:

The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton
The Nature of Fascism by Roger Griffin
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley

In 1944 the CCF was elected on a platform of implementing medicare. It would take 18 years for that promise to be realized...but the dream realized was a shadow of what had been proposed. How did we get here, what was the vision, and what did we lose?

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Hoshins? Check. Kaizens? Check. The support of actual healthcare professionals? No check. Lean management has been with the Saskatchewan health care system for over a decade and if we know one thing for sure, it's that health care workers hate it. This episode hears from University of Victoria professor Justin Leifso about how and why the government of Saskatchewan decided to try to run the health care system like a manufacturing plant.

You can find us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan. Huge thanks to our supporters, Courtney, Stefan, Devon, Nicole, Daniel, Avianna, Jeremy, Joel, epaul, Tara, Kevin, Conor, Aiden, Rob, Rod, Sandra, Leblanc Jensen Law, Conlin, Erica, Brent, and Julian!