It is like Saskatchewan looked at Alberta’s political zoo and said “Hold my Pilsner”.
The occasion was the ruling Saskatchewan Party’s throne speech, billed as a “tough on crime” document. So it was only natural the SP MLA from Thunder Creek, Lyle Stewart, should invite his old friend and mentor, Colin Thatcher.
Name ring a bell? Thatcher was the Minister of Energy in Grant Devine’s Conservative government in 1983. He was also the spawn of Ross Thatcher, Saskatchewan’s Liberal premier in the 1960s. In 1983 he also beat and then shot to death his ex-wife, Joanne Geiger, in her garage. He was tried for first degree murder, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
During the trial a picture of predatory domestic violence and infidelity emerged. There was a long, nasty divorce which was mostly decided in Geiger’s favour. Then in 1981 someone shot Joanne through her kitchen window with a hunting rifle. She was wounded in the shoulder but recovered. No one was ever charged for that crime.
Thatcher was paroled in 2006 and wrote a big book about how he was framed that nobody read, and has time as well as blood on his hands. So Stewart invited his old friend along to the Legislature shindig. Stewart was Thatcher’s assistant back in the 80s, giving young Lyle a start in the only business he’s ever known – party politics. He’s no obscure back-bencher. Through the years he has held various cabinet positions in Conservative and then SP governments, and leading roles in his party. It is hard to believe his decision to invite Thatcher was a surprise to his colleagues.
After Thatcher’s appearance caused major blowback and embarrassment for premier Scott Moe, Steward issued the standard ‘you caught me’ apology: “In retrospect I made a mistake.”
Seen in retrospect Stewart’s whole career is a mistake.
As for Moe’s “tough on crime” throne speech, that was largely window dressing to distract from the Saskatchewan’ Party’s relentless drive to privatize services and sell off publicly owned assets that put billions into government coffers. Latest on the block: Saskatchewan’s government owned liquor stores. This is a double victory for privatizing profiteers; profits from liquor sales were directed to public health services.
