Here is an Idea For You Brad

To be honest I don’t know who is right in this BHP/PCS/Brad Wall war of words over potash. But Brad says "No" and it seems that every day, the rhetoric gets a bit more strident and the stakes are cranked up one more notch.

 The Saskatchewan Government has dispatched a  gaggle of ministers to Ottawa so they can work the back rooms and the corridors of power,  Brad Wall is travelling to Toronto to try and get Canadian business leaders on side and what a windfall in advertizing revenue it much be for the newspaper industry. Each day we are bombarded with new and increasingly strident, full page ads.

Not much seems to be working.  There are no signals out of Ottawa suggesting that anyone in Investment Canada is listening and despite Wall’s special relationship with the Conservatives it doesn’t look like they give much of a damn about what Brad wants.

The only Federal MP who has spoken out about the takeover is Ralph Goodale.

 Let’s face it, this Stephen Harper government hasn’t ever given much thought to the needs of Saskatchewan’s government or its people, ever.  Why change now? Harper feels his 13 Saskatchewan MPs are on pretty solid ground.

So, I have a suggestion for the Premier. The next time you have the opportunity, make it very clear that if the Federal government approves the BHP deal, come the next Federal election, you will run Saskatchewan Party candidates in every Conservative riding in the province.

I assure you Mr. Premier , that will get Harper’s attention.  Saddled with 13 lightweight Saskatchewan MPs whose only selling point is the political parties they don’t belong to, Harper would have real difficulty holding on the any one of those seats.

Saskatchewan Potash Soap Opera Continues

Little Stevie must be in a bit of a quandary over the Saskatchewan position on the proposed takeover of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan by the Australian firm BHP Billiton. The Saskatchewan government has been acting a bit like a banana republic in their in backroom talks with BHP trying to squeeze a few extra bucks out of the company but their demand of $1 billion dollars and hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure money, was a bit rich. These guys are very large global players and one suspects that Brad's small town negotiators were much of a match. This isn't much like making a deal in Swift Current.  Billiton walked away from the table. 

Now Harper and his gang of thugs in Ottawa (well mostly Harper really) have to decide if they will continue with their policy of openness to foreign investment or, if they will ignore their policy in favour of supporting what Brad Wall calls his “special relationship” with this Conservative government.

Now truth be told, this issue of foreign ownership when it comes to Potash is mostly bullshit anyway. As Wall well knows, that horse left the barn years ago.

• The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan has it’s head office in Chicago.
• Mosiac  the other major Saskatchewan potash player has their head office in Plymouth Minnesota.

Why pretend that these are Saskatchewan companies anyway? A bit of honesty would be refreshing here.

Right now Ralph Goodale, Saskatchewan’s only Liberal MP is getting great mileage out of the events saying that  if Harper doesn’t act on the Saskatchewan request and reject the BHP effort  they “...do so at great peril” ,also noting that if the government goes along with Wall’s request it puts Harper’s investment strategy into a tailspin.

The great herd of Saskatchewan Conservative Members of Parliament are not surprisingly, very  quiet about it all. But, no one ever expected for MPs like Tom Lukiwski  to speak out for his constituents before he was absolutely certain which way the wind was going to blow.

Historically Harper never really gave a damn about Saskatchewan anyway. We remember the broken promises on transfer payments. He never saw a problem with welshing on that promise and nor did his lackey Saskatchewan MPs.

It will be interesting to see what happens.