Meili bids farewell to political life
Family, colleagues salute outgoing NDP leader as he resigns city seat
After walking up the steps into the legislative rotunda with his family, Ryan Meili and his fouryear-old son Gus stopped in front of the Tommy Douglas statue.
Meili knelt down toward Gus and explained what Douglas, the father of medicare, meant to him.
“That was the one point where tears escaped my eyes,” Meili said in an interview with Postmedia in his office. “There's a real connection. This is an office that he spent time in before he was premier. It's a special legacy.”
Meili spent his last day on Thursday as the Leader of the Official Opposition. It was also his last session as an elected MLA.
After his family and friends took their seats in the gallery, Meili announced he is resigning his seat from the assembly.
“I have poured a lot of my life into this and came with a very particular mission and a very particular point of view that I wanted to imprint on this place to some degree,” he said.
Meili had spent 13 years in politics and five years as an elected MLA. His last day as an MLA will be July 1. It will trigger a byelection for Saskatoon Meewasin, a constituency the party hopes it can cling on to.
For NDP MLAS and Meili's family, Thursday was a day of mixed emotions.
In the Opposition wing of the legislature after question period, friends and family ate cake and cheese, celebrating Meili for his time as leader and his accomplishments. However, a sense of sadness also loomed among those in the gathering.
“It's sort of like, you're at a wedding? (Or) funeral, I guess?” Meili joked. “And you're sort of waiting for things to happen.”
He said his family was ready to have him home, acknowledging his job has weighed heavily on them.
Gus has only known him as being an elected official while his other son, Abraham, has seen his dad in politics for much of his life.
As the kids played among the adults, Meili's wife, Mahli Brindamour, said the family had to make sacrifices.
“It's crazy and it's difficult, but at the same time, we're OK,” she said. “It's been fine. And we have so much support, and we're allowed to do great things. And that was fantastic and such an adventure.”
Brindamour said Gus was born while Meili was in the middle of a campaign.
“It makes me sad, a little bit, that he's seen his dad gone so much, and that was just normal for him,” she said. “So I'm glad that we're going to have a little bit of a reprieve that way.”
Gus was in a stroller while Meili had campaigned during Vicki Mowat's byelection race in 2017.
Mowat, who is the health critic and serves as the MLA for Saskatoon Fairview, recalled Meili being extremely supportive.
The two grew close as Meili became leader.
“He's definitely my closest friend around here, and I'm really going to miss him,” she said.
“We've gotten really close working on health issues together. I think we've shared every range of emotions: fears, laughter, tears.”
Matt Love, the MLA for Saskatoon Eastview, said Meili's leadership encouraged him to run for office.
He said it's challenging to see him step down, but he supports his reasons.
“I've never seen Ryan make a selfish decision,” Love said. “So his decision to step down at this time is that he really believes that this is best for our party and for our province.”
Meili said the pandemic played a role in his decision to step down and that he believes the party needs a new voice.
He said he had thought about the decision for some time, though he knew the Athabasca byelection result wasn't great for the party.
Newly elected Sask. Party MLA Jim Lemaigre won that constituency, considered and an NDP stronghold, in February after edging out challenger Georgina Jolibois.
“If I was going to go, it kind of made sense at that time, because then we can change the channel a little bit and talk about a new direction and a leader, instead of sort of be, it's stuck in a pattern that wasn't necessarily going well,” he said.
Meili reminisced on what could have been.
He said what keeps Opposition parties going is the chance to maybe one day form government and address important issues affecting people.
“It's that idea of that someday, and so I'll miss that someday.”
Brindamour had similar thoughts.
“I think his ideas of a better world and social justice would have changed things for the better, had we been in government” she said.
However, she said Meili still made a difference.
Brindamour said he's inspired the careers of medical students and young physicians.
He's also inspired their ideas of medicine, where they can be advocates in changing things for the better.
“I think about that and that legacy for the future of our profession,” said Brindamour, who is a pediatrician. “I don't necessarily think that people in the political world would think about that but that's something that's important for me.”
When asked if he felt he's made a difference, Meili said he hopes so.
“Looking at the pandemic and some of the things that we pushed for that were eventually done, I am sure that the work of this team had an impact,” he said. “I think it's just perspective and distance before I really have a sense, and there are probably ways in which there are differences made that I never even know about.”
Going forward, Meili plans to spend time with his family before he decides what to do next.
He sees himself seeing patients again, doing advocacy and teaching.
He also plans to remain an NDP member.
Once a new leader is elected on June 26, he said it's important the party unites behind that person.
“I strongly encourage NDP members, whoever they're backing, that's who they get behind, and really support that new leader, and support that new leader to be able to carry the positive vision,” Meili said.
As for Gus, he said, his dad's time in the legislature will likely become a distant memory.
“It's a special legacy and to be thinking about how do I talk to my kids about what we do here and why,” he said.
“He will sort of foggily remember when dad used to work in the weird
castle.”