The Land of Living Skies. 1.2 million people. Scott Moe's Saskatchewan Party — 17 years in power and counting. Resource wealth, agricultural backbone, and a government that treats dissent as disloyalty.
The Saskatchewan Party has governed since 2007. In a province of 1.2 million people, political competition is essentially dead — the NDP opposition is structurally weak, and the Sask Party benefits from a rural-urban divide that its own policies reinforce. Scott Moe became premier in 2018 without a general election and has governed with the confidence of someone who has never faced a serious political threat.
Moe's government has adopted the Alberta playbook: frame every federal policy as an attack on Saskatchewan, treat the carbon tax as an existential threat, and present resource extraction as the only legitimate economic model. The province's COVID response was among the worst in Canada — Saskatchewan had some of the highest per-capita death rates, and Moe publicly undermined public health measures. The government's messaging consistently prioritizes industry narratives over scientific evidence on climate, water contamination from potash mining, and the health impacts of resource extraction on Indigenous communities.
Saskatchewan remains relatively affordable — housing costs are a fraction of Ontario or BC levels, and the agricultural economy provides real employment. Potash, uranium, and oil provide resource revenue. But the wealth distribution is deeply unequal: Indigenous communities in northern Saskatchewan live in third-world conditions while the southern agricultural belt prospers. Healthcare access in rural areas is declining. Education spending per student has stagnated. The province has not invested its resource wealth in lasting public infrastructure or a sovereign wealth fund.
A province that claims to champion freedom and autonomy while: invoking the notwithstanding clause to restrict transgender rights, imposing its own version of a "parents' rights" policy on schools, and fighting the federal carbon tax while doing nothing about provincial emissions. Moe's government claims fiscal responsibility while running deficits during resource booms. The province demands respect for its jurisdiction while disrespecting Indigenous treaty rights. The coherence gap is structural and deliberate.
Saskatchewan's FOI system is functional but slow. The government has been criticized for limited disclosure around resource royalty deals, environmental monitoring data, and healthcare system performance metrics. Crown corporation governance (SaskPower, SaskTel, SaskEnergy) is less transparent than it should be given these are public assets. Campaign finance rules are weaker than in BC or Quebec.
Agricultural wages are competitive for the sector. Resource extraction jobs pay well but are boom-bust dependent. The province's minimum wage ($15/hr) is low but cost of living is also lower than major urban centers. The Sask Party has been hostile to unions and weakened collective bargaining rights. Temporary foreign workers in agriculture face exploitation with limited provincial oversight. Indigenous employment rates are far below the provincial average — a structural failure that no government has seriously addressed.
Saskatchewan scores 44.5 — a D. A province with immense agricultural and mineral wealth, governed by a party that has held power for 17 years with minimal accountability. The Moe government's primary skill is grievance politics — blaming Ottawa for problems that provincial policy created or could solve. Indigenous communities bear the worst outcomes of provincial governance while having the least voice in it. Saskatchewan's potential is real; its governance is not.
"A province that defines itself by opposition to the federal government has no positive vision of its own. Grievance is not governance."