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To suggest that the Saskatchewan Party has suddenly become top-down driven and insulated from the public it strives to serve belies two important realities.

First, all governing parties are top-down driven and become increasingly insular as time goes by.

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Second, the Sask. Party government has always been exactly top-down-driven, although that’s always been successfully masked by the gregarious Premier Brad Wall.

An exceptional communicator, one can likely count on one hand the number of times Wall either stormed away from or ducked a scrum in his decade in the Premier’s Office.

It created the perception of a government party that was open and listening — an approach that mostly served Wall and the party rather well.

But remove Wall from the equation and the top-down driven controlling nature of this Sask. Party becomes less endearing. Not that it was always the perfect approach given Wall’s infamous stubborn streak, most recently on display in his refusal to admit any wrongdoing on the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and Regina bypass.