It was a hard fought race but in the end it concluded with a landslide win for the Saskatchewan Party, although, local NDP candidate Chad Blenkin says rather than defeat, he's opting to look at the situation as an opportunity to rebuild.
Losing out Monday evening to incumbent MLA Greg Ottenbreit, Blenkin says he gave it his all and his plan now is to continue to work with the NDP to reassess, revitalize, and rebuild.
"It's a little bit of a shock, especially right here in Yorkton," he adds. "One of the reasons I think why we ended up where we are today is the fact there were a lot of undecided voters heading to the polls over the past two to three days... and the momentum that the Sask. Party had, and just the popularity that Brad Wall has. That carried him through to the polls..."
In the aftermath though, Blenkin says the NDP Party has been left with a lot of quality, young MLAs who are looking forward to the future.
He doesn't believe it was the NDP Party platform that was the downfall and says the issues the party brought forward are relevant and resonated well with the public. Some say the problem lied with the party's leader, Dwaine Lingenfelter who both lost his seat and resigned Monday evening.
"I don't know so much if it's all Dwaine Lingenfelter," says Blenkin. "I think this would have been a tough role for anybody... we have a booming economy, we have the most popular premier in the country and we ran a campaign against that.
"What we did is we tried to present the issues to the people and you do that the best that you can. In the end the voters are always right."
Now it's time to rebuild and to think about the future says Blenkin.
"I came into this with a five year plan. I knew this was going to be a tough race. I think the next thing for me is to do whatever I can to help rebuild the party right across the province, not just here in Yorkton.
"A lot of our elected MLAs are the people who are the reason why I'm running. They're the ones who came and convinced me to run in this election, they're a good group and we're looking ahead to 2015.
"We ran to win. You never run in an election to not win." But it wasn't to be. "I don't think there was much more we could have done. We didn't leave anything on the table."
Surrounded by friends, family and supporters, some of whom travelled to Yorkton Monday from Regina and Saskatoon, Blenkin says for him, that's what it's all about.
"We have a young team, most of them under 40 and that's the momentum I want to continue with for the party throughout the whole province."
The NDP has to better learn to communicate, research and strategize, he suggests.
"And we have to start doing that today. I think that's been the NDP's weakness... we're facing huge communications giants on the other side. They throw three quarters of a million dollars a year into research and focus groups and we have to start stepping up to the plate."
Communications and marketing is Blenkin's profession he says and it's a strong point he intends to use in the coming months to bring about change.
