At least 10 people running for Saskatoon city council have previously sought election for a political party, including two mayoral hopefuls.
Saskatoon city council has long served as a springboard for those seeking election to higher office — which has mostly resulted in belly flops.
Former mayor Sid Buckwold stepped down in 1963 to run in a Saskatoon riding as a federal Liberal candidate, then lost to his Progressive Conservative opponent, Henry Frank Jones. When Jones died the following year, Buckwold ran again in the same riding, but lost to Jones’s widow, Eloise.
But Saskatoon voters welcomed Buckwold back as mayor in 1967. Then he resigned again in 1971 when Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau appointed him to the Senate.
Wyant — who served as a Saskatoon city councillor from 2003 to 2010, before serving as an MLA — is trying to become the first person elected Saskatoon’s mayor after serving in a higher level of government.
Another Ward 5 hopeful, David Prokopchuk, ran twice in 2017 byelections for the provincial Progressive Conservatives, finishing fourth both times.
SAME SEAT SOUGHT
Ward 6, meanwhile, features two candidates who sought provincial office in the same seat. Tony Bassett failed to secure the 2020 NDP nomination to run in Saskatoon Eastview; Terry Alm finished a close second running in the same constituency for the Saskatchewan Party in 2007.
Alm, who represented Ward 7 on council from 2003 to 2006, opted against a bid for a second council term to run provincially. He now resides in Ward 5.
Chan has declined to answer questions about his work history and residency in Saskatoon, but his nomination papers identify a house in Ward 9, where Bev Dubois has been acclaimed.
Wyant has denied any connection to the website, but his campaign manager, Samantha Yaholnitsky, has admitted to formerly working for the site and has refused to identify who is behind it or who is paying for the thousands of dollars of Facebook ads.
Yaholnitsky is a former Saskatchewan Party advisor, as is Jarret Coels, who established the website, but who reportedly told Saskatoon freelance writer Jennifer Whitfield in August that he is no longer involved with the effort.
Yaholnitsky serves as a director for the Maple Leaf Institute.
Another director, Cole David Schultz, also worked for the Sask. Party government, and fellow director Tim McMillan, the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, once served as this province’s minister of energy and resources.
A September post by A Better YXE highlighted city funding for electric vehicle charging stations, spending that Wyant has mentioned at multiple campaign events despite his denials of any connection.
Could the oil industry be funding this entity? And why would the oil industry care who gets elected to Saskatoon city council?
It’s been well-established that Alberta oil companies contribute heavily to the Sask. Party due to the province’s lax political finance laws. In turn, party Leader Scott Moe serves as a spokesman for the oil and gas industry, even though the sector accounts for fewer than one per cent of the province’s workforce.
And this year there’s no shortage of partisans seeking spots on Saskatoon council.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here