Saskatchewan Survivor's Guide

Been a busy summer for both Paul and I.In this episode we covered:* Regina City Council’s new budget process.* How media coverage distorts municipal budgeting.* Everyday challenges facing Saskatoon and Regina, from overdoses to late-night empty buses to the shifting Cathedral neighbourhood.* The controversy behind the province’s $187-million water bomber purchase, conflict of interest allegations, and ongoing accountability gaps in government spending. * Eroding Saskatchewan media coverage following Adam Hunter’s departure from CBC and increasing consolidation by private owners. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Tammy and Paul dive into the latest buzz around pop star Chappell Roan’s hit song “The Subway,” which unexpectedly put Saskatchewan on the pop culture map. We critically examine the disconnect between Roan’s celebratory tone and the province’s social realities, including human rights concerns.We talk Saskatchewan politics, wildfire management, economic impacts, and Saskatchewan Party dynamics. Let’s just say we’re skeptical about the province’s prospects for opposition and reform from within.Can celebrity activism ignite accountability where political will falters? Or can pressure from outside forces bring about the changes Saskatchewan needs? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

We had an in-depth discussion on the leadership of Mark Carney: promises versus reality, federal austerity plans, and skepticism over dramatic cuts to CBC and Via Rail. We also took an inside look at turmoil within the Saskatchewan Party following the abrupt exit of executive director Patrick Bundrock, including his rumoured tension with Premier Scott Moe and implications for Moe’s upcoming confidence vote fail.Provincial wildfire mismanagement rages on, with impacts ranging from diminished tourism (Waskesiu) to skyrocketing crop insurance costs amid natural disasters. As usual, there is little to no national media coverage of this Saskatchewan crisis and its economic fallout.We talked about the history of Country Thunder and other Saskatchewan music festivals, their importance to provincial identity, and under-promotion challenges.Finally, Tammy talked about some of the dirty tricks she used to pull, in close cooperation with the Sask Party caucus, on the John Gormley Live Show, much to the shock, horror and dismay of Dechene. I own every mistake I’ve ever made, but admittedly was surprised at Dechene’s reaction. I didn’t realize it was such a big secret. Of course we made s**t up all the time on that show, particularly those ‘Snap Polls’, or whatever they were called.“Does the sun shine directly out of Brad Wall’s ass? 100% of Saskatchewan people say YES - news at the top of the hour.”You thought that was real? Oh honey.Enjoy, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode Paul and I try to clear our summer brain fog, nostalgic for a time when a relentless stream of wildfires and smoke didn’t define our glorious but brief reprieve from the snow in Saskatchewan.But this is the new normal: earlier, longer wildfire seasons and the persistent haze of smoke blanketing yards, outdoor pools and playgrounds. Meanwhile, as per normal in any kind of crisis, Scott Moe pretends nothing’s happening, downplaying climate change while crashing out elsewhere about something completely disconnected from the real life experience of Saskatchewan people. Dechene is not super happy with Prime Minister Mark Carney and his recent policy decisions, including cuts to the public service and wobbly outcomes of trade talks with the U.S. Premier Scott Moe’s horrific leadership has led him to believe his future rests in an exacerbated rural-urban political divide. He thinks we don’t notice his inability to manage his way out of a wet paper bag, as evidenced by the total failure of Regina’s new urgent care center, which has totally failed to deliver the promised 24/7 service.Moe has to quit, now. Anyone who knows and loves that man should be begging him to do so for his own good, and that of so many others. Enjoy, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

Can’t actually believe it’s been six weeks since we released a podcast. Apologies. There’s been a lot going on.In this extended episode we discuss the Saskatchewan government’s handling of wildfires as well as their “decision” to continue burning coal. After spending time in Regina for the first time in years, Tammy rants about the state of Regina’s downtown, road construction and its overall infrastructure. Paul has questions on the push for a new baseball stadium in that city. Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode…* Regina’s Fluoridation Debate: Councillor Bezo’s anti-fluoride push pushed back when his expert was discredited right in front of him.* Costco-GTH Controversy: Costco’s plan to build inside Regina city limits (and conveniently, on property owned by mega-Sask Party supporter Paul Hill) was threatened by a cheaper GTH deal, prompting Regina to pay $6.7M to keep them inside.* Regina’s Leadership Crisis: The city lacks key leaders (city manager, police chief, REAL CEO).* Scott Moe’s Flip-Flop: Premier Moe shifted from separatist rhetoric to pro-Canada stance amid NDP pressure and internal Saskatchewan Party unrest, with incoming leadership challenges from Jeremy Cockrill, Tim McLeod, and Bronwyn Eyre.* Saskatchewan Party Turmoil: Caucus tension and Moe’s failures fuel speculation he may not survive a fall leadership review (spoiler alert: he will if he’s allowed to continue manipulating the Sask Party’s membership demographic).* Polarization and Conservative Struggles: Conservative narratives, driven by CPC and media like Postmedia, creating fractured realities.Enjoy, Tammy This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

Paul and Tammy go over the federal election results and what they might mean for Saskatchewan, the Sask Party and Saskatchewan NDP. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

This was supposed to be an episode dedicated entirely to the REAL debacle, but we ended up working in a bit more federal election chat with the release of Rubicon Strategies, doing a bit deep dive on Saskatoon and Regina.Then we get into REAL which to me is so representative of the expensive, publicly-funded chaos and dysfunction in Saskatchewan government circles right now. It’s just got everything, from whipped and unskilled board members to the Sask Party’s grubby fingers all over it.An abject failure in leadership across the board, though to be fair I need to see more from Chad Bachynski before making a decision on his competencies. I can’t be impressed out of the gate by anyone who ran for an important role that he didn’t actually think he’d win.Talk soon, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

We recorded this episode on Friday evening, but my weekend got away from me.In it we talk federal election politics in Saskatchewan, as well as this gong show involving Dollarama Donna Harpauer here, Sask Party MLA for Humboldt, Racquel Hilbert.This is just an excerpt of her performance in the Leg that day, which I said I’d include in the show notes:Enjoy, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

Here’s your show notes:Okay it’s not that bad, but we are kind of all over the place, from the City of Regina’s budget shitshow to the Scott Moe shitshow.Perhaps more entertainingly(?), in this episode we address my relationship with the male species of Saskatchewan.“She hates men!”Heard it time and again.Nothing could be further from the truth. I adore men. Real men.The kind who’ve wrestled with real problems in the real world - which is not Saskatchewan - and came out scarred but still standing. The problem is I’ve met too many real and good men everywhere but here to continue to excuse or ignore the reality of the Mediocre Saskatchewan Male™ (MSM). The more I get away from it, the more I realize how unique these phenomenons, much like the MSM, are to this province.There is a legitimate crisis of masculinity in the province and too many women think it’s normal, which is kind of sad. It’s not, it’s just very Saskatchewan - remote, sparsely populated, highly insulated from any kind of real adversity.I’m sorry, it’s the truth. I’ve traveled a lot, lived for extended periods of time on three continents. In my honest opinion, Saskatchewan men can be a special kind of soft, like I’ve never seen anywhere else.If you’re a dude born and raised in Saskatchewan, you think an actual disaster is a slow drive-thru. You’re untested by anything harder than a woman who thinks independently. At the least, you haven’t been exposed to very many. Your biggest natural threat is the mosquito. The heaviest weights on your shoulders? Self-inflicted: you shackled yourself to the girl next door because it was low-effort; coasted into an unsatisfying gig that pays the bills; chugged way too many Pil because the Leafs lost. They’re the Leafs, of course they lost.Saskatchewan is the place where bros everywhere - including its former premier - worship a Youtuber who models himself after a Looney Tunes hillbilly and boasts a stage name that evokes premature ejaculation.I’m trying to envisage Roy Romanow watching one of those videos and I just can’t.In my opinion, real men forge their own paths and build their own empires. They don’t cling to government handouts while pretending they got rich thanks to their keen business acumen, or need to know someone who can put a thumb on a scale to get ahead. They don’t brag about being giant fish in the tiniest of ponds. Scott Moe is the patron saint of the MSM. They relate to him. He is walking, talking proof you don’t need grit, vision, or a spine to succeed in Saskatchewan. A pickup truck, penis and a pulse will get a guy everywhere.That and donate to the Sask Party? Sky’s the limit baby.Maybe I am sick of it. Why aren’t you? Pretty sure plenty of Saskatchewan women agree with me. I’m not out here swinging a spotlight around looking for anyone’s insecurities. I’m just holding up a mirror to the general public. It’s certainly not all Saskatchewan men - scroll back up if you need to read the criteria again. There are plenty of stellar men in my life who laugh with me at the moniker - who recognize I polarize to make you think, not think like me. If me calling out the Mediocre Saskatchewan Male still makes you feel seen, that’s a you problem. I think we talked about the Saskatchewan budget too.🤷🏻‍♀️T. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

Produced by Paul Dechene.In this episode we dive back into the controversial Diefenbaker Irrigation Expansion Project, a multi-billion-dollar initiative and a high-stakes gamble for Saskatchewan taxypayers, with shaky economics, outdated planning, and significant environmental risks.Ty and I are joined by Al Burchard, a seasoned advocate with the National Farmers Union (NFU) and Wetlands for Tomorrow, to further unpack the economic, environmental, and social implications of this decades-old plan. Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

Pretty sure we talked about Trump, Saskatchewan and tariffs. My take, for better or worse, on Telemiracle. Good news: after a brief hiatus thanks to February break and the subsequent emergence of Flumaggedon 2025 (who has not been sick, raise your hand you should be studied), Ty and I just recorded the third chapter of Pipe to Pivot, so that should be coming to you soon too. In the meantime you can catch up on Chapter 2 of P2P on Spotify:or iTunes:or right on this platform:Have a really good week, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

We didn’t forget about you.February break and kids got in the way of recording last week. The stats on that episode exploded, however, so maybe we should slow down output? I don’t know.Anyway, this one is more of a catchup between Dechene and I than anything hard-hitting. Needless to say neither of us are particularly enjoying the state of the world, near and far, at the moment.But we still laugh. What else are you going to do?Talk soon, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode we go back to the beginning - the very beginning.From Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s vision for the project to Tommy Douglas’s enthusiastic cheerleading to Ralph Goodale refusing to let it go, this is one mega project that has been quite the multi-partisan affair over the last 70 years or so.Because everything old is new again, in this episode we reference a few old newspaper articles which are highly relevant today. I’ve included them here. Enjoy, TFrom a July 1967 edition of the Toronto Star covering the grand opening: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

We recorded this one just on Monday so it’s pretty fresh.After a quick recap of Sunday’s brilliant (in my opinion, not so much Dechene’s) Superbowl halftime performance, we get into the GOP lobbyist who Saskatchewan residents have been paying $33,000 USD per month for an eye-watering 16 years.In the episode I reference a few documents that I’ll link to here.Click here for a copy of Nelson Mullins (via David Wilkins) current contract with the Government of Saskatchewan, or here for a copy of same with our Crown Investments Corporation.This is the most recent detailed 6-month report from Nelson Mullins, which lists its lobby activities for Saskatchewan.I published a written piece on this today: What I published out today contains more detail than I had when we recorded on Monday, so we’ll also be talking more about this in an upcoming recording.Stay warm, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

In which Dechene torments me with clips of Scott Moe in a news event earlier today, and I tell stories about what I learned when I spent a year living in the middle of a drug-running corridor from South America to Mexico.Spoiler alert: I didn’t learn that the Sinaloa cartel is hot for the Saskatchewan to North Dakota opioid trade. There are no leaders in Saskatchewan right now. We need them, desperately. For example, it floors me that nobody is coming out, bare-knuckled and ready to get bloody for Saskatchewan’s agriculture industry, which is more at risk right now than any other in the province. Put simply, Premier Scott Moe cannot simultaneously serve both the needs of Donald Trump and the people of Saskatchewan, yet that is precisely what he’s trying to do. Talk soon, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

A Saskatchewan Survivor’s Guide podcast.Whew!That’s a whole bunch of words to tell you we’re doing a spinoff devoted to Ty Thiessen’s extraordinary knowledge of the Sask Party government’s Westside Irrigation Rehabilitation Project (WIRP). Specifically, why this project is a smoking dumpster fire of red flags.Slated to cost the Saskatchewan taxpayer, conservatively, $1.15bil, the WIRP is only the first phase of an ambitious, if not illogical plan to connect Lake Diefenbaker to an irrigation corridor that extends as far north as Battleford (like what?)I’ll let Ty tell you the rest, because as you’re about to hear, he knows the WIRP better than anyone. You can read what he’s already written about it for Postmedia here and here (as well as a banger on Saskatchewan’s flawed potash royalty structure here).We’re calling this a “limited series”, in that we are limited by the material. We’ll talk about the history and questions swirling around the project for as long as it takes - right now we’re thinking about six episodes. Then we’ll update as new information becomes available, or changes are made to the project.That said, we’re not limited by the Sask Party’s fiscal stupidity - under current leadership, it truly appears to know no bounds. Ty is well on his way to a bright future in fiscal leadership, so let’s let him cook now. Meanwhile, the Mom in me is really looking forward to watching him grow in his broadcasting skills and ability to communicate his research and knowledge.Oh one last thing - I’m having Ty set up a Patreon account for this podcast. Beyond a token towards minimal production costs, all of what you donate there will go to Ty. He hasn’t set it up yet though, so I don’t have a link - get on it young man! 😏Talk soon, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

We recorded this episode on Jan 20th so I think we talked about the world ending. You know, this whole Trump thing - it’s not great.I’m in a rush this morning but wanted to get this posted. Enjoy!! T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

We talked the Westside Diefenbaker Irrigation project with special guest and agriculture economist wunderkind Ty Thiessen. Throughout the episode we reference a KPMG report, which can be found here.This monolithic boondoggle is worthy of its own show, as is the extraordinary detail to which Ty has researched this project to date. So, we’re going to do one. Watch for a spinoff of this podcast coming in the next few weeks featuring Ty, hosted by myself. It doesn’t have a name yet; we’re letting Ty lead on all fronts so we’ll see what comes together. You’ll know the first episode when you get it, don’t worry.That’s what has impressed me most about this kid (at 19, he’s very much a kid): his ability to communicate his knowledge is already vastly superior to the majority of the talking heads and politicians we’re forced to hear every day. We’re not the only ones who’ve taken notice; Ty has written multiple op-eds in the Star Phoenix and Leader Post over the last year (though strangely, only one seems to be featured on his writer’s page 🧐.)We’re going to go in-depth, combining Ty’s extraordinary knowledge of the industry, the economy and the project with my understanding of the history and politics behind Saskatchewan megaprojects like this one. It’ll be a limited series, in that we’ll go until the we’ve run out of information to share or the project is cancelled, whichever comes first. Further, Mama Tammy (this all makes me feel real old lol) says Ty’s university education is what really comes first and foremost, so we’ll be recording around his workload and school schedule.I truly see no sane world where the Westside Diefenbaker Irrigation project can go ahead. I’m looking forward to hopefully making any of it make sense.That said, after just a few hours of President Donald Trump 2: Bigger Better Dumber, I don’t see much of a sane world anywhere. Enjoy and talk soon, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe

Dechene and I get into my experience living both ends of the conservative rage hoe, then I rage some more about the fact the Sask NDP caucus has been muzzled from speaking out on the massive issues impacting our world right now.What was the point of growing the Saskatchewan NDP Opposition caucus they’re just going to be marginalized and suppressed by their own party? Oh, I also tell a story about that time I had to do perhaps one of the worst things you could possibly ever have to do with Justin Trudeau in western Canada.Talk soon, T This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tammyrobert.substack.com/subscribe