In the right circumstances, with the right pressure, a new political party can change the landscape and even the policies of the ruling government. There is now good evidence to believe that is exactly what has happened with the emergence of the Saskatchewan United Party (SUP.)On June 20, Planned Parenthood gave a sexual health presentation to a Grade Nine Class at the school in Lumsden, a town 33 km northwest of Regina. One student took home a set of educational "sex cards" with an A-to-Z of sex practices, some of which were quite kinky. News of the event spread widely on social media, thanks to Unified Grassroots founder Nadine Ness and SUP leader Nadine Wilson.Change came quickly. Two days later, then-education minister Dustin Duncan banned the non-profit from presenting the materials in schools, but mused this may not "preclude them from, in the future, being a part of delivering resources and information into the classroom." But by August 22, that ban became indefinite and included all third-party organizations.The Regina Leader-Post filed a formal information request for “any and all correspondence involving the minister of education’s office regarding sexual education, Lumsden School and Planned Parenthood” from June 19 to August 25, 2023."The answer, the public learned last week, was 225 records, 178 of them coming prior to the August announcement. Of these, 158 spoke negatively about Planned Parenthood, sexual minority inclusion and the offering of sexual education in schools. The L-P said the calls to permanently remove Planned Parenthood Regina from public schools was "universal" in the correspondence and more than half wanted comprehensive sex-ed taken right out of the curriculum. Twenty people demanded criminal charges on PP, though a subsequent investigation did not result in any.At least 24 citizens told the government their initial response was "weak." A dozen said they would change their vote if the Sask Party didn't take a stronger stance. One promised to tear up their memberships if the Sask Party didn't respond more strongly, while another said they would "work hard to get you out at the next election" apart from a stronger stance.All of this came amidst provincial by-election races that included Lumsden-Morse candidate Jon Hromek. Many told the Sask Party they had attended a town hall in Lumsden hosted by SUP regarding the school incident. On August 10, Hromek took second with 22% of the vote.Premier Scott Moe needed no more proof of the groundswell. On August 11, he told the Canadian Press, “Byelections are about voters sending a message and now it’s up to our government to listen and to act on that message that was sent here this week."Interestingly, court documents show the Sask Party began work on its pronouns policy August 9.The Sask Party gave another indication the party is paying more attention to a socially conservative segment of the electorate when it made changes to its drug policy in January."The provision of pipes for smoking methamphetamine, crack cocaine and other illicit drugs will be discontinued. The practice of providing materials with instructions on how to use illicit drugs will also be discontinued. No third-party organization will be permitted to use funding provided by the Ministry of Health or the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) for these purposes," a government release explained.Needle exchanges, it was announced, would immediately be required to operate on an exchange basis, instead of handing new ones out for free. The days of dealers being able to pre-load needles by the boxful thanks to taxpayers were over.As commonsense as that change may sound, attempts to stop endless handouts of free needles failed 15 years prior. CJME Regina radio host John Gormley made the issue a repeated topic on his shows. The founder of needle-exchange programs spoke on his show to condemn the potential for harm in the new policy. Yet, only now, has this policy finally been reversed.Much as upstart parties get criticized for "splitting the vote" and so on, the very fact they emerge usually indicates the existing political parties are neglecting a set of issues that mean something to a substantial group of people. If all of the electoral pressure is coming from the political left, a centre-right party can take the right-leaning vote for granted. When an alternative exists, that changes.Occasionally, though not often, this obvious reality is even vocalized. I recall one National Post article from the minority years of the Harper government where a Conservative told a pro-life advocate, "There's just no cost to ignoring you guys." Create a cost, however and the opinion and issue has sudden political value.Politics is often a game of reaction and compromise rather than leadership and principle. Sometimes a ruling party wants to move on an issue and it may have private support, but if all the academics and activists and political opponents are on the other side, the government knows it appears out-of-touch if not out-on-a-limb to oppose this alleged consensus against them.Thirty years ago, a national anti-tax, anti-deficit backlash came in the wake of the GST. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation was formed, the Reform Party gutted the Progressive Conservatives, a national axe-the-tax tour followed and the Liberals backed down on tax increases. Instead, spending was slashed and taxation dropped. The Reform Party never formed power, but its impact was unmistakeable.Alberta Progressive Conservatives lost their compass in the post-Klein years and the Wild Rose Party was the result. Yes, this vote split led to an NDP victory, but arguably a more clear conservatism has emerged in the United Conservative Party. The same seems about to happen federally as a more clearly Conservative Party can do what weak conservatism could not, and topple Trudeau.When Maxime Bernier formed the People's Party of Canada, his complaint was that the Conservative Party had abandoned conservatism and that if such ideas were to prevail, they had to be actively and wholeheartedly advanced. As he would say later, "We will keep saying the unpopular until it becomes popular."It's not clear the SUP or PPC will even win a seat in the next elections, but sometimes parties with no representation still make a difference. They represent ideas and people, and to those things, parties with power or the potential to form them will always pay attention.
