Mandryk: A healthy Saskatchewan legislature needs a little bad behaviour

Article content Who knew we’d miss the screaming, hollering and childish antics from Saskatchewan MLAs? Admittedly, this might be overstating matters. Past MLA obnoxiousness wasn’t without its shortcomings. In fact, the trials and tribulations of former Saskatchewan legislative speaker Randy Weekes should forever remind us about what happens when members of aging governments think they can do as they please.

Wary of this, new Speaker Todd Goudy has made it his mission to clamp down on any utterance vaguely deemed “unparliamentary.” After the Weekes experience, corrective action was needed. But Goudy’s clampdown has become excessive .



.. and more than a little sanctimonious and condescending.

His constant reminders to MLAs to “think of the children in the gallery” come across as a bit like Maude Flanders and Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons. Regardless of their behaviour, MLAs need to be treated as adults. And as the assembly’s referee (his self-description of his role), Goudy should know good refs go unnoticed.

“Think of the Children?” “Let ’em play, ref.” Worse, Goudy’s new version of what the legislature rules should now be — interpretations, not based on precedents — are not being applied evenly or fairly. For example, Goudy has reprimanded and/or asked for apologies from NDP MLAs for verbal indiscretions as mild as “phoney budgets” or “doesn’t have a clue” or “ignoring workers” .

.. terms acceptable for decades — if not centuries — of parliamentary debate.

Yet Goudy somehow deemed it wasn’t worth asking Saskatchewan Party Humboldt-Watrous MLA Racquel Hilbert to apologize and withdraw a March 25 budget speech debate comment for the NDP to “ denounce their federal leader (Jagmeet Singh) as being a terrorist in India.” Only after Leader-Post reporter Alec Salloum asked the Sask. Party to comment did Hilbert and her caucus issue an apology and withdraw the remark.

Fair is fair. And implying that a fellow parliamentarian — a federal party leader — is a terrorist is a low bar for any speaker any time. This is a speaker supposedly determined to raise that bar.

One gets that a speaker can’t get every call right. And, to his credit, Goudy has also shut down tiresome Sask. Party politicking like when Cut Knife-Turtleford MLA James Thorsteinson started prattling on Wednesday about the federal election.

But is this really the right approach ? Or is Goudy about changing the nature of the game? And maybe not for the better. Of course, some MLAs will always push the boundaries of “absolute privilege” in the chamber that exempts them from laws of libel and slander. This is why the assembly — long before Goudy’s arrival — had a long list of unacceptable terms from blatherskite to liar.

But ruling that NDP MLA Meara Conway was out of order for merely stating Lifelabs donated to the Sask. Party before receiving a lucrative, untendered contract extension came across as protecting the Sask. Party’s interests on an issue issue that needs to be debated.

(One shudders to think how Goudy would have handled former minister Bill Boyd’s Global Transportation Hub conflict allegations or the plethora of past MLAs criminally charged.) More ridiculous, Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill had a perfectly acceptable answer, explaining the originally tendered Lifelab contract permitted such extensions. Politics and governance often get mixed and the legislative chamber is the exact place where we should sort out where one ends and other starts.

Take the issue of Cockrill attending Preston Manning’s “True North Strong and Free” conference, along with Premier Scott Moe and former justice minister Bronwyn Eyre. Yes, allegations from NDP MLA Vicki Mowat assembly that Cockrill (and likely Eyre) were there to launch their leadership bids to one day replace Moe were likely unfair ..

. maybe even a bit out of bounds. But, again, why these politicians are at this conservative elbow rub is a legitimate issue.

And MLAs with leadership aspirations have been mocked in assemblies for decades. Moreover, Mowat, Conway, et al. still got their allegations on the record .

.. notwithstanding Goudy’s censoring.

Goudy’s goal may be honourable, but it’s neither productive nor effective. Most days, it’s become a little ridiculous. Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.

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