“It would have been nice to have seen more people out to the polls.”
— NDP candidate Greg Olson
Saskatchewan in general, the Yorkton constituency included, is in for another four years of Saskatchewan Party representation in the provincial legislative.
Monday’s vote very much mirrored what happened in 2011.
Locally, Greg Ottenbreit captured the Yorkton riding with 4,707 votes.
Greg Olson of the NDP finished a distant second with 1,454 votes. Aaron Sinclair of the Liberals captured 188 votes with Green Party candidate Chad Gregoire a distant fourth with 121 votes.
There were 6,470 votes cast, or 52.62 per cent of eligible voters.
Ottenbreit said Monday’s results were not that unexpected.
“From what I was hearing on doorsteps there was quite strong support,” he said.
In 2011, 10,961 votes were cast in Yorkton. Ottenbreit won the riding with 5446 votes, and 72.45 per cent of the votes cast.
Chad Blenkin was the NDP candidate with 1,932 votes, while Kathryn McDonald represented the Green Party earning 139.
Olson said locally the result was not unexpected.
“Looking at the numbers before, Mr. Ottenbreit was very popular in this community,” he said while watching the results come in at his campaign headquarters Monday evening. “We knew it was an uphill battle.”
Olson said while the results were not what he would have hoped, the process was positive.
“We had to bring the platform forward,” he said, adding the reception locally was generally a good one. “… We were getting the message out there and I think on that we were successful.”
And while he will not represent the riding, Olson said “I had a really good experience,” throughout the campaign.
As for the lower voter turnout, Olson said that was disappointing.
“It would have been nice to have seen more people out to the polls,” he said.
Asked why voters stayed away, Olson said, “I don’t know the reason,” but added it might have been an expectation of the results that kept some people home.
Ottenbreit said the advanced poll numbers were good showing interest in the vote, but Monday’s turnout was lower, which he said may have been in part because many people saw the results as expected.
The veteran MLA said in his case he just went at the campaign in the same way, adding he was taught “always give the best you’ve got,” adding “Brad Wall is very much that way too. He expects a high work ethic.”
It was obvious there was no major galvanizing issue in the campaign, and that too may have affected voter turnout.
Olson said when he was door knocking there were local concerns, including infrastructure such as the condition of Broadway Street.
Ottenbreit said there were questions from voters about a range of issue, the Global Transportation Hub in Regina, and Lean, adding “the questions are short, but a long answer,” suggesting once people were given details they better understood the issues.
Provincially, in 2011, the Saskatchewan Party won 49 seats, with 64.25 per cent of the vote, with the New Democrats electing nine while polling 31.97 per cent of the vote.
This time around, with three new ridings up for grabs, the Saskatchewan Party won 51 seats with 63 per cent of the vote, and the NDP with 10 and 29 per cent of the overall vote, virtually the same split as four years earlier.
The work for the returned Saskatchewan Party starts immediately with a budget for 2016 required.
“We’ll be looking forward the next couple of years,” said Ottenbreit, adding they recognize the economy may be slower so there will be challenges but they will approach it as a business. He said in business even in tighter times you still have to make investments to keep it viable.
As for the local area Ottenbreit said he has a few priorities that he will be focusing on through the new term including a new hospital for Yorkton, an upgrade to Grain Millers Road as a truck bypass, and economic corridor for both the city and rural municipality.
Ottenbreit said he will also work with neighbouring MLAs to see highway passing lanes between Yorkton and Canora, and Yorkton and Melville.
Numbers of voters eligible 2011 605,615, with 403,873 votes cast, or 66.69 per cent, which was down from 76.02 per cent of eligible voters costing votes in 2007.
This time around the percentage of voters slipped again, with a turnout of just under 400,000 votes cast, or about 52 per cent.
