Saskatchewan Party - Clashes With The Calvert Government

Clashes With The Calvert Government

In 2004, the Saskatchewan Party's aggressive questioning of the provincial NDP government over a bad investment of public funds – SPUDCO – forced cabinet minister Eldon Lautermilch to apologize for misleading the legislature, a fact that only became apparent once sworn evidence was acquired from a civil lawsuit against the province. The party's MLAs requested a public inquiry.

In March 2006, the Saskatchewan Party introduced a motion calling on the NDP government to apologize for the highly unfavourable and inaccurate portrayal of Jimmy Gardiner in Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story. The government has argued it was not responsible for production of the film, and thus rebuked the motion for an apology.

In 2006, in preparation for the Weyburn-Big Muddy by-election, the Saskatchewan Party was accused of using push polling by attempting to link Liberal leader David Karwacki with the Canadian gun registry. The same poll asked respondents if they linked the Saskatchewan Party with the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan. On May 16, 2006, in an effort to gain political support, Saskatchewan Party MLAs tried to associate the provincial NDP – which had vocally opposed the gun registry – with their federal party counterparts – which support it.

In 2006 the party released a taxpayer-funded advertisement for the Saskatchewan Party critical of the then-NDP administration. This ad became known for the misspelling of Saskatchewan – as "Saskatchwan". The ad was also criticized for having false information – for example claiming rising tuition costs, despite the government policy of a 3 year freeze in the price of tuition.

On November 23, 2006, the Saskatchewan Party tried to make a political issue about the provincial government trying to reclaim money from tobacco companies for the additional strain smokers placed on the health care system. The NDP government pointed out in response that the Saskatchewan Party had accepted a $10,000 donation from Imperial Tobacco in 2003.