Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe shares a laugh with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during the Saskatchewan Oil & Gas Show in Weyburn last yearBRANDON HARDER / Regina Leader-Post

The problem isnt necessarily that the Buffalo Projects advertisement last week was a not-so-thinly veiled swipe at the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It obviously was, but its free speech and diverse groups left or right, business or union still occasionally buy newspaper space to express views unfettered by the confines of balance insisted on by pesky journalists.

For those of partisan Liberal persuasion who complain that this is a travesty, this may be why there are so precious few of you out West. And after the WE charity scandal and the refusal to recall Parliament to debate the $323-billion budget deficit, the Liberals hardly deserve much sympathy.

The ultimate problem isnt even that the open letter is laced with undertones of soft Western separatism clumsily disguised as the opposite.

The reality is the the vast, vast majority of Westerners want to be Canadian and see talk of separation as either the the view of a comical fringe or (at best) an unserious political ploy by elite Conservatives with business and oil wealth angry there is a Trudeau in power.

But herein lies the real problem with last weeks Buffalo Project advertisement: The country, the world and certainly Western Canada that includes Saskatchewan and Alberta are in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic.

Well-heeled oil and business types and their operativesmadeonly passing reference to this in their ad and only as a bridge to their own long-standing grievances. They basically ignored the health crisis that has shuttered the economy.

This was their opportunity to tell others what they were willing to do to lend a hand to lead.

Instead of offering a hand in troubled times truly, the Western way their focus was on old divisions we dont need right now. It is likely to only confirm suspicions about this group and their cause.

And let us make no mistake that their cause has been political.

The Buffalo Project _ a political action committee fronted by former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall (whose name was conspicuous by its absence in last weeks ad) _ was all about defeating the Rachel Notley NDP government, the Trudeau government in Ottawa and keeping the NDP out of power here in Saskatchewan. (There again, Ryan Meili and company seem pretty determined to do that themselves.)

Rather than make it about the pandemic, the concerned citizens fighting for a new deal for Alberta and Saskatchewan told us the biggest issue at play is how our heritage as traders, innovators and keepers of the land is slowly being destroyed.

Destruction of our very heritage? Really?

Their open letter addressed to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe urged the two premiers to forge a new deal with Canada and to take steps to exert sovereignty over provincial affairs like immigration, trade, transportation corridors, and taxation. Evidently, jurisdictional squabbling is more productive and important right now than actual recovery.

And it demanded a referendum on equalization by 2021 because Saskatchewan and Alberta will no longer disproportionally support the rest of Canada, via a confusing, unfair and unresponsive transfer programs like equalization and fiscal stabilization.

It is here where things enter the realm of laughably partisan, given that we all know Wall and his Sask. Party government abandoned equalization reform in 2008 because the 2006 Conservative election promise to remove non-renewable resources from the formula was politically unpalatable for then-prime minister Stephen Harper and then-Conservative-government minister Jason Kenney.

Let us hope the Sask. Party government that suggested the letter had five concrete proposals deserving of scrutiny does unbiasedly weigh merits with the associated costs and risks. Things like access to tidewater be for fibre optics or oil do make sense.

But for now, lets hope those who purport to want to provide leadership start doing so.

Today, that means all of us lending support to a pandemic crisis rather than sowing seeds of Western discontent.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Original post:

Mandryk: Pandemic concerns should have trumped Buffalo grievances - The Province