DECISION DAY FOR SASK. PARTY
Thousands of party members are gathering in Saskatoon today to elect Brad Wall’s successor and the next premier of Saskatchewan.
After almost six SASKATOON months of campaigning, the Saskatchewan Party’s first contested leadership race in a generation will be decided at a convention in Saskatoon on Saturday night.
The party’s 27,125 members, more than 17,000 of whom signed up during the race, have been mailing in ballots since mid-December. Hundreds more are expected to vote in person at Prairieland Park on Saturday.
“I would think not many of the members would remember (the last leadership convention) because our party membership has grown so substantially since then,” Sask. Party president James Thorsteinson told reporters Friday.
The party’s last leadership race took place in 1998. Elwin Hermanson defeated Yogi Huyghebaert and party founder Rod Gantefoer.
Premier Brad Wall, who was acclaimed as leader in 2004 following Hermanson’s 2003 resignation as leader, kicked off the current race in August when he announced plans to step down after a decade as premier and resign his Swift Current seat this year.
The five candidates vying to replace him are: Tina BeaudryMellor, Ken Cheveldayoff, Alanna Koch, Scott Moe and Gord Wyant. Rob Clarke dropped out of the race but kept his name on the ballot in the hopes of recouping his $10,000 deposit.
Thorsteinson described the race and convention as an “historic event,” but said the work is far from over as the new leader will have to put her or his stamp on the party before the 2020 general election.
“There is going to have to be a bringing together of all the camps when this is all over, and we have to remain united as a party. We can’t be split in two or three different directions,” he said.
It is unclear how many ballots will be cast by 4 p.m. Saturday.
Thorsteinson declined to speculate but Patrick Bundrock, the party’s executive director, told Postmedia News this week he expects turnouttobe“verycomparable”to the federal Conservative race — 55 per cent, or 14,800 votes.
Each of the preferential ballots gives voters the opportunity to rank order their preferred candidates, from first to last. Second and subsequent choices count only if none of the candidates achieves the required 50 per cent plus one on the first ballot.
Should the election move past the first ballot, the lowest-ranked candidate will be dropped, and their votes distributed to the other candidates based on second choices. The process is repeated on subsequent ballots.
Thorsteinson’s ballot is sealed and will only be used to break a tie should one occur. The party president said the first ballot results are expected around 6 p.m. tonight.