Lingenfelter considers new approach

Opposition Leader Dwain Lingenfelter says the poor showing he and his party received in a recent provincewide poll points to a heavy workload ahead for the NDP, including a possible shift in political style.

"For myself as leader, obviously it tells me I’ve got to work harder and work smarter and change some of the ways that we’re approaching politics because obviously it hasn’t been working," Lingenfelter told reporters Monday at the legislature.

A Sigma Analytics poll conducted for the Regina Leader-Post found the NDP had the support of 29.4 per cent of decided voters compared with 57.3 for the Saskatchewan Party. Lingenfelter’s popularity trailed that of his party, with 60 per cent of respondents selecting him as the leader they would least want as premier.

"We just have to do a better job of promoting my record and my image. I’ve run in 10 campaigns in the province and I’ve had pretty good success over the years so it’s not that I’ve always had a negative image," said Lingenfelter, who returned to provincial politics last year after an eight-year hiatus.

He has adopted an aggressive and sometimes confrontational approach, having once said hard, emotional debate in the legislature is preferable to having people sit "in a sissified atmosphere pretending there’s nothing happening."

He came under fire last spring for calling Premier Brad Wall "the little thief from Swift Current" in the legislature, a remark for which he later apologized. But the issue was reignited this fall when a comic posted on the NDP’s Facebook page depicted Wall as a masked thief making off with a sack of loot from the Progressive Conservative trust fund, a reference to an ongoing court case that has the revived PC party suing fund trustees and the Sask. Party.

However, Lingenfelter contended his party hasn’t launched the same kind of television attack ads as the Saskatchewan Party. The ads, which target the NDP leader, are giving people a false impression of who he is, he said.

"I’m not making excuses. I understand we have got a long way to go and a lot of work to do . . . but we do have to learn how to deal with negative advertising and attack ads," Lingenfelter said.

Analysts have said Wall’s popularity in the poll was likely aided by his stance in recent weeks against BHP Billiton Ltd.’s proposed takeover of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., a position that received wide public support.

But political science Prof. Tom McIntosh said there also appears to be a "discomfort in the public with Mr. Lingenfelter’s style — that he’s too confrontational, that there’s sort of a hyper-critical tone to his approach."

"That contrasts not very favorably for him with Mr. Wall’s much more low-key style. Whether you like Mr. Wall or don’t, or like his policies or don’t, there is a certain gravitas and sort of calm, ‘I’m in charge, I know what I’m doing’ kind of demeanour that comes from the way he approaches issues," said McIntosh, the head of the University of Regina political science department.

Staying focused on revitalizing the party and sticking to criticisms of the government without using a "bullying kind of rhetoric" could help Lingenfelter turn his numbers around prior to the next provincial election, McIntosh said.

NDP house leader Kevin Yates won his Regina Dewdney seat by just under 500 votes in 2007 but said he’s not concerned about his electoral prospects.

He said other polls done recently have shown a consistently better outcome for the NDP and Lingenfelter than the Sigma poll.

"I don’t think you’ll see any nervousness," Yates said of the NDP.