Thu. Nov 7th, 2024

Back when Saskatchewan was a territory, we had buffalo wandering the plains. Once in a while, they would herd up and stampede across the plains making changes to the landscape as they carried on their way. Now we have a new herd of buffalo gaining momentum and popularity across the plains in the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan.

Recently, Wade Sira, interim leader of the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan, was able to sit down and answer questions regarding his party’s platform and the vision they have for the party’s future. 

To introduce the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan, it is important to include the 5 values that they hold firm in their platform: 

  1. We believe that all people within Saskatchewan are Free. Their Rights and Freedoms shall never be compromised.
  2. We believe that the Saskatchewan people have the right to vote for Independence. It’s the people’s choice to stay within or leave confederation. No matter the outcome; We should be in full control of our destiny.
  3. We believe that smaller governments will reduce red tape, reduce the suppression of a free market and be less of a tax burden to the people.
  4. We believe in democracy. The people have the right to vote for all of those who govern Saskatchewan. All of those elected shall represent the people first, without fear.
  5. We believe that every person within Saskatchewan has the right to fair treatment in regard to health care and education. (Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan Mission Statement)

Along with their 5 values, the Buffalo Party has 5 pillars that they feel would make us equal to Quebec and therefore deserve the same equal treatment that is evident for Quebec shown in a November 2020 press release below. 

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“We would like to thank the Saskatchewan Party for creating the Minister of Independence because this gives the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan legitimacy in our platform which are the Five Pillars that make us Equal to Quebec.

Independence for the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan means Equal to Quebec and is defined by the Five Pillars. These are:

  1. A Provincial Police Force, same as Quebec, which will create a better distribution of resources across the Province.
  2. We will collect our own taxes through the Treasury Dept. and send the Federal share to Ottawa.
  3. Equalization Payments – through our Treasury Dept., we will balance our own budget, contribute to our own Saskatchewan Heritage Fund, and then decide how much we will send to Ottawa in equalization payments.
  4. Immigration – as we move to a manufacturing economy, we will decide who can immigrate to our Province as we need specific people to meet the demands of our future industry. We will not be dictated by Ottawa who can immigrate to Saskatchewan.
  5. Saskatchewan Pension Plan will pay our Seniors a pension that they can live on as they are the ones who built this Province.

The Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan will not stop in the fight for Equality and Independence for the Saskatchewan People. We will hold the Minister of Independence to account in achieving the Five Pillars.

Sincerely,

Wade Sira, Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan Interim Party Leader

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Who is Wade Sira?

Wade Sira is a 37-year-old truck driver from the Kenaston area. He farms and works alongside another farmer as well. Wade calls all of Saskatchewan his home. “I love every part of it,” said Sira when asked where in Saskatchewan his heartfelt closest to. 

Mr. Sira is the interim leader of the Saskatchewan Buffalo Party and is pushing to bolster support for the party prior to the next provincial election. 

In a recent interview, questions and answers are as follows:

When did you decide to get into politics?

I was always interested in politics, even back in high school. After high school, probably around the age of 24-25, I became active within the province with the Sask. Party. At that time, the Sask. Party sounded pretty good and was really revving up. I started with the Sask. Party and I worked with them for a while to help them build and with door-knocking. I really cut my teeth doing provincial politics with them, until the party started moving in a different direction. I really didn’t feel comfortable with it and went my separate way. I also got involved in municipal politics around the Hanley/Kenaston area where my family grew up; that’s where I grew up and I was the Reeve of the R.M. there at the age of 32. I really got involved in municipal politics and saw a lot of things that I think could get cleaned up across the province. While I was in municipal politics I was always asked to be on the advisory board for SAMA (Saskatchewan Association of Municipal Assessment) as well. I’ve seen a lot of different aspects of government across Saskatchewan may it be municipal, provincial or the taxation side, so I have quite a bit of understanding of politics in Saskatchewan.

How did the Buffalo Party come into existence and how did you become Interim Leader?

The Buffalo Party began in July 2020 when the official party name was changed to Buffalo Party from Wexit. After that change, I was approached. Jake Wall, who was the leader of Wexit, didn’t want to run as the leader of the Buffalo Party. He did not want to run as a candidate for election either as he didn’t feel that the leader of a party should be a candidate. There was not enough time to have a convention vote, so everyone was kind-of asked if they would put their name up. I felt I would have quite a few people back me on it, so I put my name up. I was the only person to say, ‘yes I’ll stand up to be the leader of the party.’ It’s been a great experience.

Will you run for the leadership position at the next AGM?

That is a really good question. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there.

What do you feel is the strongest aspect of the Buffalo Party’s platform?

The biggest thing we have, in my opinion, is autonomy. We want to see a change in how governments run in the province, so people can rely on having an effective government in power. If that means reinforcing recall elections then so be it. The elected officials get elected in, and then get a get-out-of-jail-free card for four years. Everyone should be held accountable, and know that they can be held accountable by the people of this province, without people having to worry about taking them to court. In real autonomy, we have control; just like Quebec who has full control of their taxation. Some decisions made by Ottawa aren’t the best for Saskatchewan.

Will there be a Buffalo Party candidate in the Yorkton/Melville area?

If the people in the area want a candidate, they need a constituency association and then vote in who they want to lead them. The Buffalo Party would like to see a full sixty-one candidates in the next provincial election. To only be an official party for three months before the [last] election, the Buffalo Party was able to rally a good group of people around us. We put forward, in my opinion, and other people’s opinions, a really good platform. We came from nowhere, as some people labelled us as a dead horse, and placed third in the province of Saskatchewan over the Green Party who ran sixty and the Conservatives who ran thirty-three. The Buffalo Party ran half as much as the Conservatives and 2/3 less than the Green Party, and we took third in the province. It really boosted our morale in the party to feel, ‘hey there’s something moving here’. Everyone took a look at us across the country of Canada. Right after the election, I had newspapers and magazines from Ontario calling us because what we did was unprecedented.

Being a highly agricultural area, what does the Buffalo Party offer the agriculture industry?

Well, I guess first and foremost I was Reeve of an RM and for myself, I know that municipal hail insurance has some flaws. We hear that at SARM conventions. I feel that this could be fixed if we will work with our municipal partners and the SARM board to really figure that out because they’re the ones who deal with it every day. As you can see from our platform, one of our main points was farm-to-fork. We want to see more accessibility for people to be able to go to the farmer down the road and buy a quarter of meat or half of a meat. If the people want to buy milk from a farmer they should have the right to buy milk from the farm. That is fresh milk from the cow that is not going through the factory up in Saskatoon. Then, as long as they know that they have a choice to make that decision, they should be able to make the decision. We need easier access for the food growing in our area and in our province. It has been proven over and over again that if you eat more local food, you are healthier. The food breathes the same air that you would, it’s from the same ground that you walk on and you eat the same vegetables from that ground too. If we can make life easier for everyone and have less red tape, it’s good for everyone; hopefully, drawing more agriculture large or small.

What is the Buffalo Party stance of provincial Emergency services?

The Buffalo Party feels that the provincial police department could be better. The province could be in more control over emergency services, not Ottawa who have control of the RCMP. At the time when they [the RCMP] were established in Saskatchewan, they were a good idea because we were the wild west. We’re no longer the wild west. We know how to control ourselves and a provincial police force would give us more autonomy from Ottawa. Emergency services, as in the local ambulances, first responders, firefighters, need to have more proper training brought in. Some people in our party are first responders and they live in rural areas. They feel they would like more training, they really don’t feel that there is enough. There’s also a problem with the taxation of emergency equipment. Why are these emergency services having to buy equipment for first responders and have it taxed? That’s ineffective and just taxing a tax of another level of government; it’s not helping the people out. Even once it is taxed, that is not going back to the municipalities properly.  

PTSD is a big issue for our emergency services as well as for the agriculture industry. What is the Buffalo Party’s stance on mental health in our province?

We have some people here in our party who do have PTSD themselves. I have a direct connection with mental health issues felt by my family. We really have a very poor system in Saskatchewan. When a patient leaves [a health facility] after being treated for anything, there’s very little follow-up after, especially if it involves mental health. We know that it costs a huge amount of tax dollars, but at what cost to the people? Once they leave, they are left out and must manage to handle themselves, without proper training, and they feel like they are lost. We have to work more with the healthcare systems and with psychologists. A lot of doctors don’t know how to treat mental illnesses, whether it be PTSD or paranoid schizophrenia, or any kind of mental illness. We need to really look at what the future could hold for this province to be in the forefront. Ontario has a far superior system. Why are we not looking at the system that they have to support mental health?

What is the Buffalo Party’s stance on the provincial education system?

We feel it is poor. Most other parties have the idea to just throw more money at the situation, or that more teachers in the classroom will fix everything. When it comes down to it, our curriculum is a very poor style of curriculum. My son right now is thirteen years old and his grades are 1, 2, 3 and 4. We don’t even know what that actually means. They will never fail a kid. Participation ribbons are given to everyone which has really hurt a lot of people in our society; it stops the kids from having goals, achievable goals and from saying to themselves, ‘I want to get that going, to work harder. We need to be teaching more to our children about rights and freedoms. We are a democratic and free country. I have three brothers and none of them actually learned what the War of 1812 was. They never heard in history that in Canada we actually fought the British, just like the revolutionary war they had in the United States. We really lack teaching our children the real history of this country. Look at Saskatchewan, it is the foundation of rights and freedoms in Canada. In 1947, Saskatchewan brought forward the fundamental Bill of Rights. We were the first place of all the commonwealth countries that actually had a fundamental Bill of Rights, no one else did. The UN didn’t even have a Bill of Rights until 1948, a year after ours. Then, there is John Diefenbaker who no one learns about in schools. He is the only Prime Minister from Saskatchewan. He was the one who brought in the Bill of Rights for Canada. Rights and freedoms are the foundation of this province and of this country. We need to teach our kids better about our history of Canada and our own province, but also the history of what a free democratic society means. The sciences taught in school are pretty decent, but the math system is quite confusing. I’ve had a lot of parents very unhappy with the education system, especially those who teach through homeschooling. It is very hard for them to take the taxes off for homeschooling while the local school still gets the $12,000-$14000 for that kid’s [funding allotment]. We feel that we need to take a step back and everyone needs to look at the system to be more effective with the money we are spending; rather than just throwing more money at the classroom and saying we need more teachers in the classroom. 

In different provinces, Canadian history is a mandatory course to be taught in high schools. In Saskatchewan, I believe it’s an elective. Would the Buffalo party consider taking that step of making it mandatory?

To learn about Canadian history we need to bring more people to the table to have this conversation. From our experience, we feel it shouldn’t be what we feel is best for us, but what is best for us all in the province. Let’s get the governing body, as well as the opposition and anyone other parties who have the knowledge or expertise to the table, and hash it out. The Buffalo Party feels as though we’ve lost that aspect, the art of negotiation. Canadian politics since the 90s seem one-sided [benefitting] the side of the party that’s in control. The Buffalo Party wants to open that up, to hear all sides of an issue and altogether find a solution. I think that’s what we’re missing, the art of getting to the table of negotiation and figuring out what’s actually best for everyone, instead of just for me. What would be so wrong with, when you’re doing your budget, bringing in the opposition party, a couple of their critics and sitting down to have a conversation.

What is the Buffalo Party’s stance on the current government public measures regarding COVID-19 and the vaccination rollout? 

There was already a pandemic plan setup for Canada. Every province had a pandemic plan setup. Most of these plans were based on retired Lieutenant Colonel Redmond from Alberta. He helped design Alberta’s stance after September 11th, 2001. He helped set up Canada’s stance, as well as other countries around the world. We had a very very good plan. You quarantine the sick and you keep the rights, freedoms and liberties of the healthy; you let them live their lives. This was a really good plan and a good strategy. That is where you see our plan that we put up about how we would handle the pandemic, or epidemic, or whatever you want to call it. The government has thrown out all the rules. All their own legislation and policies that they had in place, and they threw them out the window. They handed everything over to the Chief Health Officer, Dr. Shahab for Saskatchewan. The policies that are in place for Dr. Shahab to be able to make his decisions, whenever there’s a considered an epidemic or pandemic in the area, would be to lock everything down. Instead of handing the control over to the health system where they only know health, they don’t know how to run a province that’s our elected officials job, the government should have had it declared maybe as just a state of emergency and not a health emergency. With a state of emergency, you could have had Dr. Shahab at the table along with some of the top psychologists and police officers; you could have everyone at the table to discuss and how to best do this. Right now, if we are in an emergency, the MLAs should be in Regina 24/7 trying to figure out how we can get out of this. We feel right now that our lockdowns haven’t helped anything. Last year, government projections showed we were supposed to have 3,700 people die; that was right from Dr. Shahab. Yet, our caseload is far from that with less than a two percent death rate. You’re not looking at the caseloads of how many people are committing suicide due to COVID, how many businesses we lost due to COVID and the financial stresses we have put on the people of this province due to COVID. Look at the opioid crisis just exploding as well as alcoholism across the province. One of the big problems we have is this vaccine is not effective. It is like using NyQuil for the flu, it suppresses symptoms but it won’t stop you from getting sick. They’re saying you still have to wear masks [after getting the vaccine]. We see other places like the FDA in the United States [are researching] Ivermectin. Across the world, India, with a population of 1.3 to 1.4 billion, gives Ivermectin to those in their country. Everyone, especially the poor and lower-class got it, they all got a package of Ivermectin and vitamin D and zinc; they were told that if you feel sick you take these pills.

Can you speak to the 30-day limit to the Emergency Act before the government must take it to court to prove it was effective?

Under the legislation that is in place for lockdowns, the Emergency Act has a 30-day limit. The government’s idea is if they just renew a lockdown or the emergency measures every couple of weeks or every three weeks, then that could just push that aside. We have court cases lined up already. It states in the Emergency Act that after 30 days the government must go to court and prove their case is effective in order to continue a lockdown; they haven’t done that. All they do is keep renewing and thinking that renewing it is satisfactory; it’s not satisfactory. Our courts are closed, I have heard of multiple people who filed cases against the government, but the courts can’t hear them because the courts are shut down; they are not held accountable. Accountability is another problem we have in this country. The government runs the courts. Our courts are not separate and all our judges are hand-picked by the government;  that’s not right at all right. When was the last time you voted for a senator? Alberta votes for senators but we don’t. We need to have a more effective style of government in the province. The government needs to be held accountable. They’re the ones who are not allowing us to hold them accountable because they just shut everything down, and that’s wrong.

You will find the FDA [are researching] Ivermectin. [Some medical doctors] say it can help with Covid-19 [it was found to inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro].  Ivermectin only costs a couple of dollars per pill instead of $120 for a vaccination with Pfizer, or $85 worth of the Moderna. We don’t feel that all options are being explored by our government, they’re just dead set on only a vaccination. If the vaccination works for some people, that’s great. We feel that the vaccination right now is no different than the vaccination for the flu. If you get the vaccination for the flu it doesn’t stop you from getting the flu, [it only lowers your risk of contracting it]. There are other options out there that our government needs to explore. I honestly don’t understand where they’re going with the vaccines. Do they want the whole population vaccinated, or only want certain people? There’s no transparency right now and that’s not helping people either. If there was more transparency from the government, maybe the people would have more trust in them right now.

What message do you as interim leader want the people in Saskatchewan to hear about the Buffalo Party?

The Buffalo Party first and foremost holds the rights and freedoms of the people of Saskatchewan in the highest regard. As you see in our Mission Statement and Values, we want to be a free and prosperous province. Freedoms and liberties are what this province was built upon, as I stated earlier. In 1947 Saskatchewan was the first place in all the Commonwealth to bring in a Bill of Rights. The Buffalo Party is a community-based party. You belong here [with the Buffalo Party] if you believe that is right for you, as long as you believe everyone belongs in Saskatchewan. 

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The Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan is currently petitioning the public to support their stated goal, “To restore your rights and freedoms.”

The petition states the following information:

The current regulations imposed by the Government of Saskatchewan violate the Charter freedoms of citizens to move, travel, assemble, associate and worship all while crippling society and the economy. 

Under the Saskatchewan Government’s Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan for the province, many of the features of the economy and society have been permitted to resume operations in part, under strict and costly conditions. The government has not informed the public when long-term restrictions – such as those on mass gatherings – will be repealed. 

The Charter requires the Saskatchewan Government to carefully and thoughtfully consider the full impact of lockdown measures, restrictions, and regulations including all social and economic harm, as well as the adverse impact on the physical and mental health of its citizens. The Charter requires actual evidence, not speculation, to prove that these lockdown measures, restrictions and regulations have achieved results that would not have been achieved by measures that do not violate the Charter. This has not happened. 

WE, the undersigned residents of the Province of Saskatchewan, wish to bring to your attention the following: 

THAT the current COVID-19 ordinances contravene the rights and freedoms of Saskatchewan people enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms;

WE, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Government of Saskatchewan to end all lockdown measures, restrictions and regulations that are currently in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

(https://www.buffalopartysk.com/the_buffalo_party_of_saskatchewan_wants_to_restore_your_rights_and_freedoms)

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