Reason to reevaluate

Yesterday, I figured it should be obvious why it would be reckless for the Sask Party to figure that it can coast on policies that haven't been given any thought since 2003. But in case there's any doubt whether anything has happened in the meantime that would cause any remotely competent government to reconsider its economic model...

So the Irish government bailed out the banksters, cut public spending, and their economy is in the (#@*^&).

Unemployment is up to 13.8 percent (it was as low as 4.2 percent as recently as 2005); public spending has been savagely and repeatedly cut since 2008; the deficit has risen to 14.3 percent; and current predictions suggest that 100,000 people will emigrate in the next several years, from a population of 4.3 million. The bill from the struggling banks may, in the end, total upward of $135 billion 100 billion euros, in an economy with a G.D.P. of $220 billion 160 billion euros.

Truly, the Wall government doesn't plan to settle for any mediocre failure when it can instead continue down a road which leads to an all-out catastrophe. But the rest of us don't seem to have much reason to want to go along with a plan to turn Saskatchewan into the next Ireland - and if Wall isn't willing to learn anything from the mistakes of his ideological cousins elsewhere, then our only chance is to make sure he's not in a position to set the province's direction.