Medicine Hat News

Sask. NDP leader sizes up fortunes at halfway point

- STEPHANIE TAYLOR

REGINA

With less than two weeks until election day in Saskatchew­an, NDP Leader Ryan Meili is trying to woo voters who he sees as disillusio­ned Saskatchew­an Party supporters.

Meili has acknowledg­ed the New Democrats are the underdogs in the fourweek campaign leading up to Oct. 26. The NDP had 13 seats in the legislatur­e at dissolutio­n, while the governing Saskatchew­an Party held 46.

Scott Moe is trying to secure a fourth term for his party, which won consecutiv­e majorities under his predecesso­r Brad Wall.

At a campaign stop in Regina on Thursday, Meili appealed to voters who have supported the Sask. Party in the past, but may be looking for something different.

“To those people, I say, ‘You have a choice. You can vote for your NDP candidate and for an NDP government,”’ he said.

“Nobody’s voted yet. The election is not over.”

Jim Farney, head of political and internatio­nal studies at the University of Regina, said the

NDP’s s chances are far behind the Sask. Party’s based on recent polling.

However, he said there continue to be openings for the party in urban constituen­cies in Regina and Saskatoon.

“They’re a long way behind obviously and there’s no demographi­c group across the whole province that they lead in,” Farney said.

“Even young women ... if there is a group that’s going to tilt NDP, it should be them.”

Farney said Saskatchew­an has a history of charismati­c leaders who have embodied the identity of their political party. But the transition of power between leaders of the same party hasn’t always gone well enough to ensure dynasties, although it appears to be going smoothly this time.

“It seems like so far -- we’ll see on election day -- that Wall to Moe is going well for the Sask. Party,” said Farney.

“That suggests something kind of unusual has gone on in terms of the connection and the loyalty they have built.”

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, says the non-profit’s research shows some

Saskatchew­an voters want another option altogether.

“The desire for a third party says to me that this is no longer necessaril­y the lovefest that the Saskatchew­an Party enjoyed in its early political heyday,” Kurl said.

“(It’s) more a sense of perhaps resignatio­n among Saskatchew­an voters that, ‘We’re going to go with this choice because it’s the option we have.”’

On Thursday, Moe promised to bring back a grant for community rinks and boost funding to veterans services organizati­ons if his party is re-elected.

He’s campaignin­g on his party’s economic record and pitching himself as a leader voters can trust to rescue the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kurl said some voters’ perceived lack of options raises questions about turnout on election day, and could serve as a message to New Democrats.

“It may be a signal that the NDP in Saskatchew­an needs to move further to the centre ... or it risks being marginaliz­ed by a more centrist party, should that party ever exist.

“There will be some soulsearch­ing and reckoning postelecti­on as there always is, but ... there may be more soul-searching to do this time around.”

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Ryan Meili

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