Wexit Saskatchewan is considering a name change just two months after it was given official party status. On June 3, the party’s executive board voted in favour of the name “Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan”. However, the party announced a few days later that it will put the choice to its membership in an online vote..In a post on the Wexit Saskatchewan website, the party said, “Over the last few months, we have heard both membership support and toleration for the registered name and feel at this time (as we move towards a Founding Convention this summer) it is imperative to allow the membership to decide on the name of this grassroots independence party.”.The executive sees some advantages in distinguishing itself from the “Wexit” name. .Party executive member Harry Frank told the Western Standard that his party did not want to be associated with all of the broad range of comments on the VoteWexit.com Facebook page, which has 3,600 unmoderated posts per day..“They basically let anybody post anything they want, and a lot of it may not even have to do with Wexit. People were getting pissed off. You’re posting a whole bunch of crap from the [United] States. Just racist comments…I might make the odd comment and usually it’s Wexit Sask has nothing to do with these guys.”.Frank said, “People just saying, ‘I’m fed up with this site, this is ridiculous,’ you know, ‘you just lost my vote,’ so that’s something that we want to try and curtail.”. Wexit-Saskachewan-Buffalo-1 .According to the party’s website, “All members will receive an email containing a secure voting link beginning on the morning of June 28th, 2020. The poll will remain open until 6:00pm on July 4th, 2020. The results will be published within days shortly thereafter.”.Two members of the executive resigned over the name change, partly because they supported the old name (Wexit), and partly because at that time the executive had not yet decided to put the matter to a vote of members. The former executive members talked to the Western Standard on the condition of anonymity..“My position was stay the course, deal with a name later. Rome wasn’t built overnight, so quit trying to please everybody. Do we stand for something, or more worried about what everybody thinks?” said one. “I won’t be ‘buffaloed’ into virtue signaling.”.The second former executive member told the Western Standard, “I can’t hear that name without seeing Michelle Rempel’s face.”.Michelle Rempel, Glen Motz, Arnold Viersen, and Blake Richards were four Conservative Alberta MPs who published the Buffalo Declaration earlier this year in the Western Standard. The declaration called for federal reforms to rectify ‘critical injustices’ against Alberta..Other names were pondered, including Liberation Party of Saskatchewan, Prairie Freedom Party, and Grass Roots Independence Party. However, Elections Saskatchewan wouldn’t let the party use the word “Independence”, deeming it too close to “independent candidate”. This wasn’t the case in next door, where Elections Alberta approved the name “Wildrose Independence Party” for the pending merger of the Freedom Conservative Party and Wexit Alberta. .“We found out you can’t use the word ‘Progressive’ in it, ‘Conservative’, ‘Saskatchewan’, ‘New’, anything that relates to any other party you can’t use in your name…”.The Province of Buffalo was proposed by the former Premier of the Northwest Territories, Sir Frederick Haultain. Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier decided to create a separate Alberta and Saskatchewan instead..A search of domain info on the Canadian Internet Registration Authority shows that “buffaloparty.ca” was registered on May 2 of this year. The Wexit movement is represented by VoteWexit.com. However, a visit to VoteWexit.caautomatically redirects to a clip of the 1978 film Jaws.
