"Just watch me" were the words from Scott Moe to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the carbon tax, moments after Moe won the Saskatchewan Party’s leadership race on Saturday evening in Saskatoon.
Those three words were originally said by Justin Trudeau's father Pierre Elliott Trudeau, when a reporter asked him how far he would go in quelling the Front de Libération du Québec revolt that gripped the attention the nation in the early 1970s.
The elder Trudeau took it as far as invoking the War Measures Act, and if that's the attitude Scott Moe is taking with the federal government on the carbon tax, 2018 is going to be a very interesting year for the people of Saskatchewan.
It was a close race between Moe and runner-up Alanna Koch, with Moe winning the leadership by a margin of just over 1,000 votes on the fifth and final ballot. Overall Moe finished with 8,075 votes, getting 53.87 per-cent of the support.
Ken Cheveldayoff, Gordon Wyant, Tina Beaudry-Mellor and Rob Clarke were also on the ballot. Clarke dropped out of the race in December, but his name still appeared on the ballot. He was the first candidate eliminated.
Beaudry-Mellor was the next to go, and then Wyant and Cheveldayoff were eliminated. Most of their support went to Moe’s camp.
Estevan MLA Lori Carr was among those who publicly supported Moe.
"Scott Moe has a lot of characteristics similar to Brad Wall, but Moe is his own person and is different from Wall," Carr said in an interview with the Mercury. "I know that Scott Moe is going to carry on the legacy of Brad Wall by continuing the economic and growth policies of the Wall era that have been very advantageous to the people of this Saskatchewan."
Moe, during his speech to the people of Saskatchewan, took no time to warn the New Democratic Party (NDP) and many others that Saskatchewan's pro-business policies of the Wall era will not die, but rather be supported even more.
He also went through a series of statistics about Saskatchewan's growth as a province over the last 10 years, and noted the growth was possible while reducing taxes by $6 billion.
"During those 10 years, we have reduced taxes by six billion dollars and now we have for the first time 1,100,068 people that call Saskatchewan home, something that I know I or you are very proud of because those people are in all of our communities across this province," said Moe.
Carr said there are some aspects of Moe's policies that she likes very much and she believes will benefit Estevan and the province as a whole.
"One of the factors in his policy that I like is he wants to balance the books within two years. He also wants to do that by not shocking the economy at the same time, but making sure that we are on solid ground so we don't leave this debt to carry for our children and our grandchildren," said Carr.
"Moe is very economically minded and wants to create jobs and attract businesses not just to the Estevan area but to the province as a whole. He wants to see it grow, he wants to see it develop and he wants to expand our trade base so that all our industries, whether it be agriculture, oil and gas, have opportunities to build and grow and get those exports going so we can have more job creation in this province."
Wall had a plan to get the population of Saskatchewan growing and Moe echoed that plan by describing the population growth that has occurred in the province in the past decade as a great thing.
He also had some criticisms about obstacles that have prevented pro-business policies from reaching their potential.
"This will not change with the two individuals wanting to lead this party. Our growth was stifled by a party and a government that refused to advocate for the people and businesses in this province who were content to sit idly by and play the little brother, the We Province if you will," said Moe.
"Thankfully, due to the hard-working people of this province, they were not content and neither will be the Saskatchewan Party.
“We are a force to be reckoned with, we knew we had the ability to grow and become a leader in innovation and technology and share in our natural resources and our made in Saskatchewan products that are shared around the rest of world," he added.
He also commended the people of Saskatchewan of their hard work that has helped shape the province into a prosperous place to live, and Moe made it abundantly clear that what Wall and now Moe deem to be beneficial to Saskatchewan will become a reality.
"Saskatchewan, our province, is and always will be the very best place for us to live, work and raise your family and mine, and we can chart our own course and can chart our own future," said Moe.
"This belongs to … the people of the province and we will not let the NDP or the federal government throw obstacles in our way and we will continue to tell the Saskatchewan story around the world, and tonight I stand with the people across our great province for the growth and prosperity of our communities that we have now all come to expect," he added.
