Do we like Scott Moe?
Our score: 3 out of 10. A school pronoun law forced through with the notwithstanding clause and a change-room pledge are real harm, with some decency alongside.
Moe grew up on a grain farm between Shellbrook and Parkside, studied agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan and ran several businesses before politics. He was elected MLA for Rosthern-Shellbrook in 2011, served as environment and advanced education minister, and became premier in February 2018 after Brad Wall stepped aside. In April 2026 his party nominated him to run again in 2028.
The story that follows him is a 1997 highway collision near Shellbrook that killed a woman. He was ticketed for driving without due care and attention, and police found alcohol was not a factor. In 2021 he met the woman's son privately, and a recording of that meeting has him saying “Why not me?” and apologising. He was also convicted of impaired driving at 18, in 1992, and has said he regrets it.
Now the harm check, and it's the big one. In 2023 his government brought in a rule barring students under 16 from changing their names or pronouns at school without parental consent. A judge paused it after a challenge by UR Pride, a Regina LGBTQ+ group, and a month later the government re-enacted it using the notwithstanding clause. His government argues parents should be involved in school decisions; the Court of Appeal has since ruled the challenge can go ahead, and the province is taking it to the Supreme Court.
Then came the 2024 election campaign. Days before the vote Moe said his first job would be to bar “biological boys” from school change rooms with “biological girls”, a pledge that wasn't in the party platform. After the election he said he had misspoken, and promised to consult school boards instead. Walking it back is better than pressing on, but it was still a campaign pitch aimed at trans students.
On the rest of the harm test, the reporting we could open shows opposition to the federal carbon tax, including a Supreme Court challenge that lost, but nothing of his own on migrants, women or conspiracy theories. We also found no harmful company he keeps. So it comes down to the trans policy, and that's enough on its own to fail him.
The recent news is a stoush with the NDP. On Oct 21 Moe posted on X that the NDP had left AI prompts in its health plan and wrote “It's no wonder no one takes the NDP seriously.” Leader Carla Beck called the claim obviously false, and the NDP replaced the document with a shorter version. Separately, Moe backed Canada in Alberta's separation vote and welcomed the result on Oct 20, though he said relations with Ottawa still need work.