Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block appears to represent an extension of Charlie Clark’s left-leaning legacy, but this council could tack further to the right.
So it’s worth asking whether Block’s election marks a permanent left turn for Saskatoon, where the Saskatchewan Party has dominated the electoral landscape for a decade.
Long-serving mayors like Atchison, Henry Dayday and Cliff Wright were generally considered centre-right politically, bereft of overt partisan affiliations — until Dayday ran for the federal Liberals before getting the boot as mayor.
Yet most voters opted for a candidate other than Clark when he first won in 2016 with 41 per cent of the vote (in a field of four candidates) and in 2020, when he improved to 47 per cent over five other candidates.
Block earned 44 per cent of the vote in this month’s election. And, as with Clark, most voters chose another candidate, although Saskatoon’s new mayor got a larger share than Clark in 2016 and Atchison in his first election 21 years ago (30 per cent).
But Block may have benefitted from running the strongest campaign, too. She boasts perhaps the best communication ability of any recent Saskatoon mayor, which was honed during her career as a broadcast journalist and CTV anchor.
Her principle challengers also faced serious hurdles. Wyant was trying to become the first Saskatoon mayor to have served previously as an elected official in a higher level of government.
Atchison, meanwhile, appealed to the more conservative suburban voters with his claim that far more money from a provincial agency is helping to defray the costs of recycling collection for apartments and townhouses than for single-family homes.
But of the eight Saskatoon civic elections held this century, only two (2009 and 2012) featured a real two-way race.
As for the council Block will lead, it looks likely to lean further right than its predecessor. Right-leaning incumbents Troy Davies and Randy Donauer easily won their re-election bids and Bev Dubois was acclaimed.
Coun. Zach Jeffries, who was also acclaimed, may consider himself a progressive, but he frequently votes with Davies, Donauer and Dubois.
Newly elected councillors like Kathryn MacDonald (Ward 1), Holly Kelleher (Ward 7) and Scott Ford (Ward 8) bring varied business backgrounds to their new roles, so it’s reasonable to expect a fiscally conservative outlook.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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