The celebration of status quo that was the Saskatchewan provincial election is over, and for geeks who like to crunch numbers and political nerds who like to reflect and speculate, the real fun is now underway.Â
The Saskatchewan Party went from 49 to 51 seats, and their share of the popular vote dropped slightly from 64 to 62 per cent.
Despite renewed efforts by the provincial Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties, and even though the last couple of years have not been kind to the Sask. Party, the government did not suffer a tangible drop in support.
As long as Brad Wall is the leader of the Sask. Party, he will be the premier. The only question seems to be whether he will still be the premier when the next election is called in 2020, or if he will pursue other endeavours.
Locally, Sask. Party candidate Lori Carr won convincingly, just like her predecessor, Doreen Eagles. Once the first polling station reported its results, and Carr had a 63-vote lead, the question then became who would finish second.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) is in a much tougher position. When they were routed in the 2011 election, a lot of people blamed the then-leader Dwain Lingenfelter. Even the staunchest Lingenfelter apologetics would admit the public rejected him as a leader.
Cam Broten is a much stronger leader and a much more likeable person than Lingenfelter, but he failed to connect with the public. The NDP captured one more seat than they did in 2011 and their share of the popular vote actually declined.
While Broten isn’t the only one to blame for the NDP’s results, he certainly deserves criticism.
The campaign started poorly due to the social media scandal that forced two candidates to resign and two more to be turfed, including Estevan candidate Cameron Robock. Then the NDP reintroduced a pledge to have the lowest-cost utility bundle in Canada, which was a mistake, and they recycled the fear-mongering associated with the privatization of Crown corporations, which reeked of desperation and even cluelessness.
The NDP needs to take a long, hard look at their policies, philosophies, strategies and leadership to regain power.
As for the other parties, it was nice to see the Liberals run a full slate of candidates, even if some of their candidates merely occupied space on the ballot. The Progressive Conservatives had some impressive showings, especially in the Estevan constituency, but still have a long way to go on the road back to province-wide relevance.
The Green Party of Saskatchewan saw their share of the vote decline again, despite the best efforts of their leader, Victor Lau.
This election seems to be validation for the efforts of the Sask. Party in the last eight years. But the next four will be their toughest test yet.
