Brian Zinchuk;
It’s not very often you see the provincial leader of the opposition smear someone you know during question period, but I saw that on April 1, when NDP Leader Ryan Meili smeared Jason LeBlanc, an Estevan farmer and auctioneer.
Back in 2016, Jason hired me to do a photo and video project documenting a year on his family farm. Having grown up on a farm myself, I was amazed at the scale and complexity of his operation, 15,000 acres in size. But more significantly, I got to see a work ethic that is next to impossible to match. If he sleeps, I don’t know when. The video series just rolled over half a million views on YouTube for the primary video, and 800,000 views for another one. In it, you can see for yourself just how hard he and his family work. This is one serious farmer.
Since that time we’ve become friends. We agree on most things, but not everything, and I’m not afraid to tell him that, and he’s not afraid to tell me the same. This is what is called a relationship built on mutual respect.
So imagine my surprise when I watched NDP Leader Ryan Meili take a run at Jason for 13 minutes during question period on April 1, fittingly, April Fool’s Day. Conveniently he did this where he had parliamentary privilege, and can say whatever he wants without reprisal. I say that because his allusions bordered on slanderous.
[…]
Jason delivered the longest speech on Parliament Hill when that convoy made it to Ottawa, saying, “In my hometown of Estevan, Saskatchewan, we are known as the Energy City. We are proud of that claim and proud of our city, but Prime Minister Trudeau’s policies have had profound impacts on our community. The state of uncertainty has clouded investments, killed jobs, eroded community support for programs, made it difficult for businesses to obtain and retain qualified employees, decreased property values and turned people’s dreams and hopes of an amazing life into a nightmare.”
Pretty radical stuff, huh? He spoke in particular about climate change, clean coal, and the carbon tax, and I watched all of it on live feeds on Facebook.
Read it all.
Behind in the polls by a margin of 55% – 31%, smear by association is about all Meili has to reach for these days.
Well, things got a little heated at the legislature yesterday.
But Moe accused Meili of a double standard on Tuesday, pointing to a demonstration the NDP leader attended on Monday.
“The NDP leader also attended a rally just as recent as yesterday, Mr. Speaker. That rally was about minimum wage, but the person who organized that rally is an outspoken anti-pipeline activist,” said Moe.
The premier’s staff pointed to specific tweets posted by Saima Desai, who helped organize the Fight for $15 rally and is also editor of Briarpatch magazine. Some date back months; others are more recent. Desai makes remarks like “abolish prisons” and points to a letter about “abolishing the police.”
“By his new-found standards, does that mean that the leader of the NDP shares both of those positions?” Moe asked. “By his new-found standards, was his attendance at yesterday’s event an endorsement of the organizer’s anti pipeline, anti-police and anti-prison agenda?”
You can catch the full exchange on video here. (forward to 2:01:40 mark)
Jason Leblanc had a few words for him, too.
A word of encouragement for Mr LeBlanc from a slandered deplorable emeritus – Cam Broten’s political career died in ignoble defeat three years ago and I’m still here. I wager we’ll be both be around to taste the sweet schadenfreudy goodness of Meili’s departure, too.
Footnote: As I was pulling this post together, I caught this in passing — CBC veteran reporter Stefani Langenegger, her finger still searching for the pulse of the province.
Sad.
Morning update: The cheap shot headlines are rolled out in a reminder of how much they hate us.
