Phillip Zajac, the new leader of the Buffalo Party in Saskatchewan, criticized the premier, prime minister, and the United Nations in his first lengthy interview since taking the helm two weeks ago..In a YouTube interview with Mark Friesen, Zajac said 56% of party members participated in the leadership vote on March 26, but he still doesn’t know the margin of victory over his rival Clint Arnason..“Both of us who ran we just decided … whoever won, won; and that’s it right? We don’t need to know if we won by five votes or 10 votes,” he said..Arnason only got 12 votes when he ran in a recent by-election in Athabasca. Zajac, who also ran federally for the People’s Party in 2019, was one of four Buffalo Party candidates to finish second in the 2020 provincial election. The 1,713 votes he received in Estevan were 24% of the total, but far behind the 4,409 for incumbent Saskatchewan Party candidate Lori Carr..The Regina-raised Zajac has lived in Estevan for 11 years, and worked at a bank for the past eight, while volunteering as a high school football coach. His next big party event will be the policy and governance convention in Regina May 28-30..“That’ll be basically the policy that we’ll be going forward with towards the next election. We’ve had a ton of submissions, which is nice to see, that there’s so many people that are passionate about the province, and where we want to go.”.For now, Zajac has been trying to distance the party from its separatist reputation..“Our mission is to get the exact same deal or better than what Quebec has right now,” Zajac said. “We want our own taxation, we want our own immigration, we want our own police force.”.The new leader said he was not impressed with Premier Scott Moe’s efforts against the federal carbon tax..“We’re gonna put on a show that shows we’re not going to do it, but we are going to do it. It’s so disappointing. When you look at just like the carbon tax fake battle in the Supreme Court, right? Hey, we lost; we tried. But then what? Oh, nothing,” said Zajac..“It’s not a negotiation; it’s not something that we need to ask someone to do. This is our province and our people, and if it’s not good for us, we just don’t do it.”.Zajac said he was “impressed” by people in the trucker convoy and the manifestation of “Canadian pride everywhere” — except from the prime minister..“The people in Ottawa, including our fearless leader — to call them terrorists and try to just smear that whole thing — it’s insulting. And the rest of the world noticed for the first time what’s really going on. And when you look at what the federal government has done, there has to be a voice in the province to say, ‘You can’t do this.’”.The agendas of the World Economic Forum and “U.N. globalism” are “not something we need to be involved in at all,” according to Zajac..“If we don’t have the budget to give $2 billion to Africa for fighting C02 emissions, we don’t give it. The common sense of politics is disappearing. And you know this as well, it’s not complicated stuff. It just takes common sense. And just getting the common sense message out there.”.The party’s executive, which included Zajac as secretary, booted former interim leader Wade Sira and some of its other 2020 candidates from the party in December. The internal divisions and lack of a permanent leader kept the party from better harnessing the anti-mandate sentiment during the pandemic into a political following. Now Zajac can speak his mind as party leader..“There’s no reason that we would never shut down a business. And if people choose to not go, you’re a free citizen. Don’t go yes, if you if you choose to stay home, stay home. We would never mask people either… And to put those on children is an atrocity… Kids don’t die from COVID,” Zajac said..“We would never force anyone to if you wanted to keep your job, you have to have a vaccination. There’s this thing called informed consent… If you want to get a vaccination, that’s great. If you want to wear a mask, that’s fine. It doesn’t offend me either way. I just want the same respect as a citizen, that’s all.”.Lee Harding is a Western Standard reporter living in Saskatchewan.
