Hopefully by the time you’ve read this “Junetember,” as a friend of mine dubbed the chilly weeks that tormented the province last month, is a memory and we’re well into the golden, warm days of July. September feels like a million years away.

Except it’s not. Perhaps that’s why Saskatchewan’s NDP Opposition Leader Ryan Meili sent a letter to Premier Scott Moe at the end of June, requesting a return to the Legislative Assembly at the beginning of September.

Before we know it, this summer will have slipped by, and I guarantee we’ll have less answers than we do now on not only the true state of our province’s finances, but on a plan to get us out of the hot mess we’re being lowered into like an 1980’s movie hero into boiling lava.

Of course, that movie hero always enjoys a surprise, last-minute rescue and all is well that ends well. Using that logic, you’d think the Premier of Saskatchewan would relish a last-minute, pre-election opportunity to showcase his plans to rescue us helpless voters from the certain doom that lies ahead. The Legislative Assembly, via Question Period, is literally an exercise in two things: 1) putting things on the historical record, and 2) preening and performing for the media gallery, in hopes of favourable coverage. Trust me, Number 2 is literally . . . well, you get the picture.

But no, the premier’s response to Meili was a tweet, which read, “A few minutes ago, I received a letter from the Leader of the NDP requesting for a return to the Legislative Assembly in September. This legislative session has not gone well for the NDP and now they are asking for a do-over.”

So essentially, in this tweet the premier is inferring that he and his government were so successful at obstructing transparency and evading accountability during this session, that the NDP were forced to request more time. Moe’s response was the social media (and maturity-level) equivalent of thumbing one’s nose at an idea.

That’s just sloppy and unnecessary politics. Personally, I don’t think a return to the Legislature in September is warranted, but whatever happened to leadership with class and dignity?

*****

Speaking of lack of class and dignity in politics, it appears that the race for Saskatoon’s mayoral chair is finally limping to a start. Former Sask. Party MLA Rob Norris has finally announced what many of us have known for 18 months — he’s going for it.

In one of the more confusing choices for political optics I’ve seen, possibly ever, Norris chose the outside of Saskatoon’s long-running restaurant, The Cave, for his jubilant lunchtime announcement. Framed by the circular void of the restaurant’s doors embedded in its cavernous grey exterior, he made it official. He didn’t hold back lashing out at current Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark, which is a fair political move.

What bothers me, however, is what appears to be an orchestrated campaign of semi-powerful Saskatoon voices, from prominent businesspeople to publicly-funded economic development officers, who apropos of seemingly nothing launched a media blitz attacking the perception of safety, or lack thereof, in Saskatoon’s downtown core.

Specifically, of course, patrons of the Lighthouse building, and the negative, scary feelings their mere presence supposedly evokes in people using and perusing the city’s downtown.

Media dutifully picked up these concerns, never really asking about their timing or motivation. Then, lo and behold, with that always controversial evil-Lighthouse narrative ringing in the background, Norris announces that his campaign is going to be rooted in, you guessed it, law and order.

I am all for a clean, honest and democratic mayoral race; one that makes candidates stronger and voters better informed. So far, what we’re seeing is not that.

-Tammy Robert