Walters wants to bring provincial Liberal party out of obscurity
SASKATOON Jeff Walters says he is going the distance to win the constituency where he grew up.
The leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party is commuting about four times a week from Regina to knock on doors before the Saskatoon Meewasin byelection, where he hopes to bring his party from the brink of oblivion to being a force in Saskatchewan politics.
“I figure if I want to be serious about representing this constituency I need to put the work in,” Walters said on an early September afternoon as he knocked on doors along upscale Spadina Crescent.
Walters hopes the Sept. 26 byelection is a chance to convince voters his party could be a viable alternative for people who are unhappy with the Saskatchewan Party government and the Opposition NDP, both of which have been the only real forces in the province's legislature since 2003.
That year was the last time a Liberal MLA sat in the chamber.
In the 2020 general election, the Sask. Liberal Party received just 355 votes, part of a dramatic fall from prominence that began in 1997, when four then-liberal MLAS joined hands with four then-progressive Conservatives to form the Saskatchewan Party.
Walters said he and his grassroots campaign should not be underestimated, and that his party deserves a voice in the legislature.
“It's really, really devolved into voting against something, or just not voting at all,” he said.
“That's what it's become. Getting more viable parties that people can get attached to and do some good with. Having that in our democracy is one of the best things we can do.”
Walters was raised in the River Heights neighbourhood of Saskatoon.
The son of a stay-at-home mom and a father who worked in manufacturing, he said his family always staunchly supported the Saskatchewan NDP, but things changed for him in university and he began to feel less represented by the people in power.
That became more pronounced when one of his children was diagnosed with juvenile Parkinson's. Walters said the family had a long, frustrating search for a specialist o get a proper diagnosis. The experience pushed him to get involved in politics.
He joined the Sask. Liberal Party just a month before its disastrous run in 2020 and became leader shortly after. Under his watch, the party has gained more visibility and prominence. In April, the Liberals began a petition aimed at forcing a review into how Saskatchewan's government approached the COVID -19 pandemic; the party says it had received 20,000 signatures as of earlier this month.
The party has found money to pay for billboard advertisements near Meewasin, and Walters said a small but dedicated team of volunteers are knocking on every door they can. On this trip, he goes out with one of his sons.
His favourite word on the doorstep is “policy.”
He proposes introducing caps on political donations by individuals, corporations and unions and a ban on donations from outside the province. His party also wants to create a ministry of science and technology, resurrect a tax credit for Saskatchewan filmmakers, and set new targets to reduce carbon emissions in the province without hampering an economy driven largely by resource extraction.
He admits getting people on board is tough.
His party is often confused with the federal Liberals, with whom it has no official affiliation, and he gets a frosty reception at a few doorsteps. He said the party considered changing its name, but decided doing so would be dishonest.
“It's really just trying to fool people. It kind of goes against my whole thing,” he said. “No one's going to jump on a sinking ship. So my job is to make it look like we're a viable alternative … it's tough.”
Some in the Saskatchewan NDP have suggested that Walters' campaign could split votes on the left, handing a win to the Saskatchewan Party. Walters said he rejects that argument because turnout in byelections is generally very low. Only 40 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the last byelection in this riding in 2017.
Beyond that, Walters said he sees the vote-splitting idea as part of the kind of attitude he wants to combat, the notion that there are only two choices.
“What is it really about?” he said. “If you can't tell a respective voter what you're going to do, what does it become? It has become essentially a form of tribalism where people stick in their own camps, like a football game, one side against the other.”