NDP plans fall growth campaign for 2020
Provincial party looking at ways to gain seats outside traditional urban areas
The Saskatchewan NDP is planning for what its campaign director has called a “growth” election. Party insiders say winning 20 seats would constitute meaningful progress.
While the official line is that the NDP hopes to form government, multiple insiders told Postmedia that adding seven or more seats to the party’s current total would be a positive step.
That means the party needs to hold its 13 seats in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and the north, while making gains in rural ridings selected, in part, based on where the tightest races were in 2016.
“We’re going to build on those wins, target the next tier of constituencies, based on our research, to win more seats in 2020,” campaign director Trevor Mckenzie-smith said.
“Our ultimate goal is that this is going to be a growth campaign … We’re going to run a targeted campaign based on our strengths using the best (information) possible,” Mckenzie-smith added.
Asked by reporters whether the party is aiming to use 2020 as a stepping stone to the next provincial election, he responded, “Well, the first thing we need to do is win more seats.”
The party has not identified all of the ridings it plans to target in the campaign, which is expected to begin next fall, but Last Mountain– Touchwood and Canora–pelly are understood to be among them.
NDP planners are also thought to be eyeing Prince Albert Carlton and Moose Jaw Wakamow as targets. Indian Head–milestone has also been mentioned by party staff.
Glen Hart won Last Mountain– Touchwood for the Saskatchewan Party by 2,702 votes in 2016; he is not seeking another term.
Terry Dennis’s margin of victory over his NDP challenger was 2,995 votes.
Joe Hargrave, the only targeted Sask. Party MLA to sit in Premier Scott Moe’s cabinet, won Prince
Albert Carlton by 683 votes, while Greg Lawrence won Moose Jaw Wakamow by 695 votes.
Indian Head–milestone is held by Don Mcmorris, who won it by 3,270 votes.
Mckenzie-smith also mentioned the “forest fringe,” seats surrounding Prince Albert, saying “We’re coming for those seats too.”
Winning rural seats is essential if the NDP hopes to form government, but the party has been all but shut out in the last three elections and three byelections last spring.
The Sask. Party is meanwhile planning to target urban seats — traditionally safe territory for the NDP — and has scoffed at its chances of making gains outside the major cities.
Mckenzie-smith and others have emphasized the importance of nominating strong candidates, and getting the party’s pitch to voters out early, well before the formal start of the campaign.
“How do we succeed? Like I said, succeed by telling the story of who we are and being disciplined and focused on our message,” he said at the party’s annual convention in Prince Albert on Friday.
“So we all need to be saying the same thing, telling the same story and kind of repeating ourselves over and over again in a lot of ways, because we need that message to break through.”
The NDP and leader Ryan Meili have faced criticism previously for failing to articulate a coherent and unified vision that will resonate with potential voters across the province.
Saskatoon Fairview MLA Vicki Mowat and Meili’s chief of staff, Adrienne King, spent Friday afternoon sounding out delegates’ views on various issues likely to feature in the platform.
Topics during the closed workshops included health and education — which party insiders have discussed frequently in recent weeks — as well as reconnecting urban and rural areas.
The NDP has made no secret about its plan to campaign on education reform, as well as class size and composition issues that the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation is fighting to get into its next contract.
STF President Patrick Maze spoke to the convention on Friday, but demurred when asked what signal it sent.
He said he would be happy to speak to the Sask. Party about education if invited.
(Maze ran for the NDP in 2011.) The NDP’S plans for the education sector are expected to be among the first platform planks it unveils. That is “stuff you’re going to see right away,” Mckenzie-smith said.
“I want to talk about education, I want to talk about classroom sizes. I want to talk about infrastructure in rural Saskatchewan when it comes to education. “
We all need to be saying the same thing, telling the same story and kind of repeating ourselves over and over again