Canada’s longest-serving government is showing its age
The Saskatchewan Party is hoping to win a fifth straight majority government in the province, with an election call expected in the coming days, but it will need to pull it off with a lot of rookie candidates.
Almost half of all the government’s MLAs won’t be on the ballot in the election, including deputy premier Donna Harpauer and a handful of cabinet heavyweights, with 34 of the 61 candidates running under the Saskatchewan Party banner seeking election for the first time.
The vote is expected to take place on Oct. 28, the last possible date for an election under provincial law and polls currently show the conservative Saskatchewan Party, which is now Canada’s longest-serving government, winning power 17 years ago, as favoured to win over the NDP.
Saskatchewan Party Leader and Premier Scott Moe has been selling the large candidate turnover as a positive.
“(Moe’s) certainly no Brad Wall,” said one of the defectors, Greg Brkich, during a talk radio interview in May, comparing the premier unfavourably to his predecessor as party leader. Wall stepped down in 2018 to be replaced by Moe.
Regina-based political strategist Dale Richardson says the infighting is a symptom of the governing party’s long run of success.
“Some of the young staffers and volunteers out there door-knocking for the Sask. Party don’t even remember when the NDP was in power,” Richardson said. “They’ve never really known having a dislike for a party that wasn’t their own.”
Richardson, who’s been involved in Saskatchewan Party politics since the early 2010s, said that the lack of a serious external threat has allowed the party’s internal fissures to deepen.
Lang McGilp, research director for Saskatoon-based Insightrix Research, says that voters seem ambivalent about both major parties heading into the campaign, with an increasing number saying they’re unsure of who they’ll vote for.
“The number of undecided voters has gone up since the start of the summer, from 28 per cent to 33 per cent,” McGilp said on Wednesday.
Support was skewed along urban/rural lines with six in 10 decided voters in both Regina and Saskatoon backing the NDP, while six in 10 rural voters supporting the Saskatchewan Party.
Cheryl Oates, who will be managing the NDP campaign, says she sees the upcoming election as winnable.
“People are frustrated,” Oates said, noting Saskatchewan falls near the bottom of national rankings in various categories relating to health care, education and the economy. “And the government hasn’t done a good job of handling those frustrations.”
“People are starting to understand that they have the power to change the government on October 28.”
National Post
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