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First, the premier could be basing his comments on the provincial role in regard to these issues. However, there is no provincial role in the matter of whether or not Canada would continue to bomb in Syria. His comments on refugees might have been prompted by briefings from provincial or federal officials about the feasibility of achieving the objective of bringing in 25,000 refugees before the end of the year. However, the premier provided no indication that he had been briefed by federal officials, which the PM has promised to do later, and he did not present evidence from provincial officials about the feasibility of accepting our share of refugees in Saskatchewan.

A second reason might be that he simply wished to support the Conservative Party in its criticism of the Liberal approach to these two issues. Once again, however, while it is no secret that the Premier has been generally supportive of the Conservatives, he has been careful in the past to limit remarks to areas where there is some federal -provincial intersection. Again, it is unlikely that this is the motivation.

A third reason might be that he simply wishes to deflect attention from a number of provincial issues which have been plaguing the government this fall. These include the carbon capture problems, the bypass problems outside of Regina, health-care deficiencies, etc. Some more cynical columnists have suggested this is the real reason, but I think this is unlikely. He could have deflected this without commenting on national issues.