EYRE: Why do only conservatives have to show decorum?

Bronwyn Eyre is the former Saskatchewan Minister of Justice and Attorney GeneralIn the tribal world of politics, attempts at appeasement can be a high-stakes strategy.Following the recent provincial election, the Saskatchewan Party government pledged to “improve decorum” and “disagree without being disagreeable.” The Throne Speech read, “This Assembly should be a place of vigorous debate and even strong disagreement … [which] should never be driven by malice toward those on the other side.”Of course not — and it begs the question. ‘Malice’ is a loaded, legal word that means the “intention or desire to do harm or evil.” As part of that government for eight years, I can honestly say that while partisanship, political jockeying, and heat-of-the-moment frustration motivated us at times, malice did not. As for “disagreeable,” who will define that except the media and the NDP? You could say the Throne Speech plays into the narrative, often advanced by conservatives themselves — that they, and only they, must appease the left, which includes the media, and be more grovellingly conciliatory than anyone else. Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck and her cohorts regularly engage in inflammatory, ad hominem, even defamatory attacks. Take this recent mike-dropper from “ethics and democracy critic” Meera Conway, “The Sask Party government says that MLAs can break the law, line their pockets with public money … [with] no fines or punishment … and just sail away into the sunset.”Did Beck join with the Sask Party government in calling for greater decorum? Of course not. “Decorum is important,” Beck said. “But that doesn’t mean that we should put on kid gloves when it comes to the real issues facing Saskatchewan.”And that’s the pattern, or trap, in a nutshell. Play nice. Squelch heckling. (“The place is like a morgue,” said a recent guest to the Chamber.) Minimize political pushback. Get zero credit. Let the other side continue to heckle, play politics, defame. Then take the blame.On the last day of the fall session, Beck called Premier Moe a “bad liar.” He defended himself — then he was criticized for lack of decorum, “Saskatchewan’s fall legislative sitting ended…with political barbs traded across the aisle after Premier Moe promised a better tone…and civility," wrote the Canadian Press.The NDP/media were in a particular flap over the ‘Game Changer Award’ — which Moe and former New Brunswick premier Blaine Higgs received at a Toronto dinner last spring from the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada — for “solid, courageous leadership” fighting the federal Carbon Tax, being among the first to lift COVID restrictions, and supporting the Freedom Convoy.According to its website, the CCMBC “represents manufacturers in every sector … employs millions of men and women … contributes billions to Canada’s economy … [and] advances policy options to achieve economic growth, prosperity, and job creation … with a particular emphasis on automotive, heavy industry, and the energy sector.”The NDP’s Meera Conway calls the CCMBC a “far-right lobby group.” About the award, Murray Mandryk wrote, “Moe and his strategists have now determined it’s unwise to continue to be perceived as dogmatically hard line right-wing.”Of course, as a dogmatic hard line left-winger, he would say that. Saskatchewan was the first to legally challenge the federal Carbon Tax—a fight the NDP now claims to support. COVID was a complex balancing act for every single Western government, left or right. Sweden’s left Social Democratic Party government — which imposed next to no pandemic lockdown restrictions (remember that?) — is affiliated, through the international Progressive Alliance, with none other than the New Democratic Party.As for the Convoy — a movement that’s been emulated across Europe, particularly by farmer groups — we chose not to be contemptuous of unemployed cross-border truckers and energy workers or indifferent to the feds’ attempted banning of crowd-funding and garnishment of bank accounts.Nevertheless, the media or critics have merely to drop the “far-right” burn, and conservatives run for cover. “I’m a fiscal conservative” — meaning a palatable one — is the most common self-defence. Does the Left ever do the equivalent? “I’m more centrist than Trotsky.”“Mao is my man — except for state-sanctioned murder.”“I’m left, but not anti-Israel left.” It never crosses their mind. The NDP’s Conway was censured by B’Nai Brith Canada after she repeated, then equivocated over “from the river to the sea.” Has anyone bothered to question whether she condones the growing antisemitism, including Nazi saluting, that we’re seeing on Canadian streets or campuses? How’s that for far-right?Then we have her colleague, justice critic Nicole Sarauer, one of several elected officials whom Regina Rabbi Jeremy Parnes said he was “ashamed of” for failing — in a letter she co-wrote to the federal government — to explicitly condemn antisemitism or the role of Hamas in the October 7, 2023 massacre. We took decorum to heart and awarded her a King’s Counsel designation. The usual patternLike so many conservative politicians, former federal Tory leader Erin O’Toole ran — to his base — on being “true-blue,” only to turn into “Liberal-lite” once he was nominated. After losing the 2021 federal election, then ousted by his fellow Tory MPs, his farewell speech — much-praised by the media — warned against “performance politics,” “chasing social media likes,” and “fuelling polarization.” Translation: shun Pierre Poilievre — who, ironically, has never made any bones about being true-blue and now dominates the polls.After Jason Kenney stepped down, he called Danielle Smith’s then-proposed Sovereignty Act “nuts,” “catastrophically stupid,” and said it would make Alberta a “laughing stock.” Such self-slagging, eat-your-own talk emboldened the national characterization of Smith as a right-wing loon, until she trounced Notley in the leaders’ debate. “She is a good communicator,” one pundit allowed — as if it were some unfortunate secret weapon that conservative politicians aren’t supposed to possess.It’s a similar story down south, where former presidential contenders Mitt Romney and John McCain certainly didn’t follow Ronald Reagan’s famous “11th Commandment” that you “never speak ill of fellow Republicans.” George ‘Dubya’ was so hungry for establishment validation after his second term that he forgot how much they had loathed him (remember “Bush Derangement Syndrome”?) Derangement, of course, was nothing until Donald Trump, whom the left blames for everything, including his own attempted assassination.Typically, conservatives are extolled only after death. Exhibit A: Ronald Reagan, now considered the grand old man of post-war U.S. politics. Exhibit B: Brian Mulroney. After he retired in 1993, people literally did back-flips in the streets. Corruption charges followed. Now, deservedly, he’s one of our Confederation’s golden boys.Reagan and Mulroney would agree that decorum is important. Of course, we should be able to sit down for a drink with our political foes once in a while. But we can never forget who we are, because they certainly never do. And we can never abandon the fight, fight, fight — on points, facts, and policy. Because for the left, “resistance is never futile.”As for enemies, they come with the territory. After Margaret Thatcher fired most of her Cabinet over their “lack of grit as a consequence of their privilege and entitlement,” she recited the poem “No Enemies,” by Scottish poet Charles MacKay. I had a copy on the wall of my office.You have no enemies, you say?Alas! My friend, the boast is poor;He who has mingled in the frayOf duty, that the brave endure, Must have made foes! If you have none,Small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip, You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,You’ve never turned the wrong to right, You’ve been a coward in the fight.Couldn’t have put it better myself.Bronwyn Eyre is the former Saskatchewan Minister of Justice and Attorney General.