Where Sask. Party ruled, where NDP cleaned up
A look at neighbourhood poll data from the 2020 provincial election
Saskatchewan's political map seems like a simple one. The top half is orange, the rest is forest green, with two splotches of orange marking the inner-cities of Regina and Saskatoon.
But at a granular level — street by street — the reality is more complicated. There are NDP bastions in even the greenest ridings, while the Saskatchewan Party has a foothold, here and there, in the urban core. Then there are strongholds within strongholds: neighbourhoods so full of so-called Dippers that conservatives of any kind are an endangered species; blocks so dominated by the Saskatchewan Party that socialism must be a dirty word.
Here's a look at the poll-by-poll data released by Elections Saskatchewan on Tuesday, excluding advance and mail-in votes.
WHERE DID THE NDP DOMINATE?
Ballots are cast and counted by poll in Saskatchewan. A poll can cover an area of just a few blocks in an urban area. At some, voters were almost unanimous. A poll at the University of Saskatchewan gave 12 votes to the NDP'S Jennifer Bowes, and just one to the Saskatchewan Party incumbent.
But that's a small sample. The Leader-post/starphoenix looked at every poll in Regina and Saskatoon with at least 50 ballots cast in 2020 to pinpoint where each party did best in the two big cities.
The NDP'S Erika Ritchie won 80.6 per cent of the ballots cast at a poll at Saskatoon's Oskayak High School, which drew voters from an area just east of Broadway Avenue by Main Street in Nutana. It was surrounded by a cluster of polls where Ritchie cleaned up with well over 70 per cent.
In Regina, the NDP'S best poll was in the heart of Cathedral, just south of 13th Avenue around Elphinstone Street. There, NDP incumbent Carla Beck won 79.2 per cent of the ballots cast at Connaught School. She was just a tad lower, but still dominant, all along 13th Avenue heading west.
HOW ABOUT THE SASKATCHEWAN PARTY?
For the Saskatchewan Party, the big blowouts came in the outer suburbs. Ken Cheveldayoff won 86.4 per cent of the ballots cast at a poll at the Saskatoon Soccer Center Family Focus Eyecare. The voters came from the far eastern reaches of his riding, on a few crescents and bays near Stensrud Road. He was similarly dominant in a ring of polls around it.
In Regina, the greenest area was just to the east of Prince of Wales Drive, where Gene Makowski took 83 per cent of the ballots cast at WF Ready School by voters from the area centred on Sandringham Road.
There was no other Regina poll of any significance approaching that kind of blowout, though Christine Tell achieved even higher margins just to the east in White City and Emerald Park.
The Saskatchewan Party was also able to rack up votes in seniors' residences. At Preston Park II in Saskatoon, for instance, Lisa Lambert won 122 ballots against 48 for the NDP.
HOW DID THE NDP FARE IN RURAL AREAS?
In a word, badly. But there were some spots of deep orange — concentrated almost entirely on First Nations reserves.
Of 53 polls held on reserves that the Leader-post examined, the NDP won all of them. It took 90 per cent of the 3,042 votes cast on all reserves. The Saskatchewan Party won just 266. In some cases, the Buffalo Party did better. On Wahpeton, near Prince Albert, the Saskatchewan Party candidate received no votes at all.
But the NDP'S pull with First Nations made little difference, particularly since on-reserve turnout was once again extremely low.
DID THE BUFFALO PARTY WIN ANYWHERE?
The Buffalo Party managed a surprise by placing second in four constituencies, though well behind the Saskatchewan Party.
But there were a few polls where the upstart party can actually claim a sort of victory.
There were at least four. The Buffalo Party's strongest showing was in the area around Hazlet, northwest of Swift Current, where its candidate scored 91 votes to the Saskatchewan Party's 55. The Buffalo Party also won a poll in Bienfait, and two in Estevan.
WHERE ARE THE MOST DEDICATED VOTERS?
Overall turnout in Saskatchewan was 52.86 per cent of eligible voters, or about 54 per cent of registered. That number has been sinking for decades.
There were also far fewer in-person election voters in 2020, as record numbers voted at advance polls and more than 50,000 used the mail.
But there are still some communities that came out in droves on Oct. 26.
About 71 per cent of the registered voting population of Climax came out on election day, in person, to cast their ballots. That appeared to be the most in the province, though it's unclear if other communities would beat out its total were advance and mail-in ballots included. Earl Grey and, again, Hazlet were also near the top of the running.