Unmaking Saskatchewan Harbinger Media Network

In the 1990s Saskatchewan was in almost as dire a position as it had been during the Great Depression. The province was on the verge of bankruptcy, people were leaving in droves, the PC party was collapsing under the weight of the fraud scandal, the Liberals were in freefall, and the NDP, led by Roy Romanow, was slashing services to the bone. The collapse of the PCs and Liberals, coupled with the NDP’s hard right turn away from everything it had ever claimed to stand for created the conditions for the rise of the party we live under today. First in a three-part series on the Saskatchewan Party. 

In 1982 Saskatchewan elected the second Conservative government in the province's history. By the time the dust settled nine years later the province is $12 billion in debt, 12 members of the Devine government are convicted of fraud, and the Progressive Conservatives cease to exist as a political force in Saskatchewan ever again. Alex talks with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Saskatchewan director Simon Enoch about the Devine era and its legacy, which haunts the province to this day.

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.

Evangelical Christians have impacted the social and political fabric of Saskatchewan for over a century, from fur-trade era missionaries to the temperance movement to the anti-trans "parent's rights" legislation. At the same time, the movement in Canada has tended towards moderation in comparison to their counterparts in the U.S. This episode examines the history of evangelicals in Saskatchewan and Canada and how the rise of Trump and the COVID era has put new energy into Canada's Christian right.

Sources:

This U.S.-based ‘hate group’ is using a shadowy network of lawyers and doctors to infiltrate Canada


How Canadian evangelicalism is reinventing purity culture as ‘pro-women’


Canada’s marginal ‘Christian right’


Trinity Western loses fight for Christian law school as court rules limits on religious freedom 'reasonable'

Exorcism at Sask. children's Bible camp could be criminal, say experts

Fact Sheet: Public Opinion on Abortion

The evangelical movement is becoming increasingly salient in Saskatchewan politics, most recently with the passage of the anti-trans "parents' rights" legislation passed in fall 2023, legislation that had substantial backing from evangelical churches and organizations. Alex talks with Dallas Verity, a Regina resident who was raised in the church and worked as a youth pastor before leaving the church after coming to question its reactionary doctrines.

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.

The Sask United Party was registered as a political party in Saskatchewan in November 2022 and since then they've espoused a deeply fascist politic. SUP leader, Nadine Wilson, left the Sask Party caucus in September 2021 after lying about being vaccinated. The party ran its first candidate, oil executive and Evangelical Christian Jon Hromek, in the Lumsden Morse byelection in August 2023. On this episode Alex digs into Wilson and Hromek and unpacks the party's constitution, platform, and propaganda.

Find us on Patreon at patreon.com/unmakingsaskatchewan.

More like GONE Gormley. On November 24th conservative hack and area goblin John Gormley will go off the airwaves for good after a quarter century of bloviating from the Rawlco studio. Jeremy Davis joins Alex to talk about Gormley’s legacy. Rest in piss, John!