NDP’s Wotherspoon seeks to build bridges

LeAdership candidate’s compromise style seen as having broad appeal

Hitting Whitewood’s main street, NDP leadership hopeful Trent Wotherspoon thought he would be talking about the last provincial budget’s addition of the PST to crop insurance when he popped into the local insurance broker’s office.

Instead, what resulted was a heartfelt conversation about mental health concerns in the area, driven by a tough economy and the isolation rural people are feeling.

While in Moose Jaw to talk to members of the Saskatchewan Ironworkers about job training, he was pulled aside by a burly union member. The man’s eyes welling up, he thanked Wotherspoon for his leadership campaign platform calling for universal mental health coverage and urged the leadership hopeful to “get it done.”

In describing his most memorable moments of his second NDP leadership bid, Wotherspoon — inadvertently or otherwise — may give a clue as to why many Saskatchewan New Democrats see him as the relatable leader they need.

Since Tommy Douglas’s Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) — predecessor to the NDP — won power in Saskatchewan in 1944 to become North America’s first social democratic government, the NDP leader has always had to balance costly social policy with governance practicality.

With the Saskatchewan NDP now out of power for a longer period than any time since Douglas’ first win, Wotherspoon is now viewed as the champion of NDP pragmatism.

“I hope I represent a time of getting back to building bridges in rural Saskatchewan and building bridges with the economic sector,” Wotherspoon said in a recent sit-down interview.

“We have a long ways to go to building those bridges.”

Wotherspoon insists “there’s a lot of common ground” and — perhaps ironically — thinks the social policy elements in his platform are where much of it can be found.

From his conversations with Saskatchewan’s Chamber of Commerce, the province’s construction association and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, there has emerged a consensus understanding of the need for public spending in areas of mental health and social policy.

And he says he is comfortable building bridges in these areas.

“It’s not a space unnatural for me,” said the 38-year-old former teacher, who worked with at-risk youth at the Ranch Ehrlo Society and through the Regina public school system before first being elected as the Regina Rosemont MLA in 2007.

Wotherspoon said one of his proudest accomplishments is overseeing a $100,000 annual youth justice program. For the price of keeping one young person incarcerated for a year, it has almost eliminated a recidivism rate that used to be at 91 per cent.

Some of his passion comes from his dad Craik — a longtime Regina principal at inner city schools. He also credits his mother, Faye, and wife Stephanie (also a teacher) for grounding him. But it is talk of his three-andhalf-year-old son, William, that draws emotion out of Wotherspoon. “He didn’t come easy to us,” Wotherspoon said. “I’ve grown as a person (since his birth).”

The candidate bristles at accusations of opportunism from Saskatchewan

Party benches and even

New Democrats who say he should never have entered the race after initially saying he would not run and taking the interim leader role. His uncertainty, he says, was due to having an infant in the house after the 2016 election.

Nor does he make any apologies for his ample support from unions, caucus colleagues (Cathy Sproule supports rival Ryan Meili and interim leader Nicole Sarauer and David Forbes are undeclared), longtime New Democrats or “a lot of people that didn’t support me last time that are supporting me now.”

While careful not to criticize Meili, Wotherspoon notes internal and external party polls show he best relates to both the party faithful and the less ideologically aligned the NDP will have to work hard to win over.

“We’re not where we need to be,” Wotherspoon said. “I hope by Thanksgiving, people are saying: ‘I don’t know about those NDP, but I like some of the things they are saying.’ ”