Conservative campaigns mum on membership sales
With the deadline to sign up supporters looming, none of the candidates in a hotly contested nomination race on Saskatoon’s east side are saying much about their chances when the votes are counted next month.
The Conservative Party of Canada race in the Saskatoon University riding is regarded as a referendum on incumbent Brad Trost, but neither he nor challengers Brad Redekopp and Corey Tochor agreed to reveal their membership sales figures.
All three candidates expressed confidence in their work on what turned out to be a short campaign. The race officially kicked off Jan. 18 and the deadline to sign up new members is 4 p.m. today.
“Campaigns are really reluctant to give away numbers for tactical reasons ( but) we sold fairly well,” said Trost, who has held the seat since 2004, before speculating that the March 10 nomination meeting could attract 2,000 voters.
Tochor, who is the Saskatchewan Party MLA for Saskatoon Eastview and resigned as speaker of the legislature to enter the nomination race, said his membership sales have been “really encouraging” during the unexpectedly short race.
Redekopp, a business owner and political operative, said he expects the race — which will be decided using a preferential ballot — is unlikely to be decided in the first round of counting.
Under the party’s nomination rules, if no candidate receives half of the vote on the first ballot, the lowest-scoring candidate is dropped and their supporters’ second choices distributed to the remaining candidates until one accumulates the necessary 50 per cent.
Both Redekopp and Tochor are basing their campaigns, in part, on the assumption that Saskatoon University voters want a new MP after the 2019 general election. Tochor described Trost as a “polarizing ” one-issue candidate.
Trost — who placed fourth in the Conservative leadership race last year — has a different assessment of his outspoken views on social conservative issues, including abortion.
“I know I’m a controversial MP in Toronto and in Ontario, but in Saskatchewan people have got to remember I’m mainstream. I beat Jim Pankiw years ago, and so I was considered the moderate candidate … For a Saskatchewan Conservative, I’m right in the middle.”
Tochor said his campaigning led him to conclude people in the riding want a “fresh start” and are uneasy about their membership dollars funding an ongoing legal battle between Trost and the party over a leaked membership list.
Despite not having the same experience in politics as Trost and Tochor, Redekopp emphasized his credentials in business and charity work. He said electing someone without a political history could be good for the constituency.
Trost acknowledged he won’t get some of the “ideological” votes cast next month, but said people “are more likely to come out for something ” — meaning the incumbent — “than against something.”