Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit has achieved his fourth term. After the vote on Monday, Oct. 26, Ottenbreit was quickly declared elected with approximately 75.6 per cent of the vote, coming in above the NDP’s Carter Antoine and the Green Party’s Judy Mergel. Ottenbreit’s success was matched by his party, which formed its fourth majority government with 50 seats compared to the NDP’s 11.
In total, 3768 votes were cast for Ottenbreit, with 1068 for Antoine and 145 for Mergel.
While this is a higher percentage of the vote for Ottenbreit, who had 73 per cent of the vote in 2016, a much lower number of votes were cast overall in Yorkton. A total of 4,981 ballots were counted, compared to 6,318 in 2016.
Elsewhere in the region Terry Dennis took Canora-Pelly for the Sask. Party with 4160 votes, compared to Stacy Strykowski’s 1431 votes for the NDP, Robert Hayes gaining 356 for the Buffalo Party and Breton Gattinger’s 123 for the Green Party.
In Melville-Saltcoats, the Sask Party’s Warren Kaeding took a healthy majority of the vote with 5023 votes overall. In second was the NDP’s Bonnie Galenzoski with 1141 votes, followed by the Progressive Conservative’s Trever Ratti with 317 and the Green Party’s Jack Powless with 130.
Ottenbreit said that winning a fourth term is exciting, and that election night doesn’t get old.
“It’s quite humbling to look at the percentages we’re getting coming in, the amount of votes we’ve been getting even after three terms, into our fourth term.”
The election result is a confirmation that they have done good work over the past 13 years, said Ottenbreit, but also a vote of confidence in Premier Scott Moe, who has won his first election as Premier.
“This is a pretty strong showing not only to the support of the Sask Party and the government in Yorkton, but I think province-wide, the numbers we are seeing coming in that show that the people have a lot of confidence in Scott Moe but also in his leadership and it’s a pretty strong signal that he is definitely the very respected and strong leader of our province.”
This election was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions put in place, which limited gatherings and campaign events. Ottenbreit said that they’re used to a lot more interaction with people during an election, whether in the campaign office or by door knocking.
“Obviously this time we couldn’t really do that much, but still we found innovative ways to connect with people, to have them call in or you know, communicate with them in some way shape or form to hear their concerns… I think it’s a pretty clear indication with the numbers we’re seeing here that, you know, some of the stuff that we did worked.”
Ottenbreit also had praise for how Elections Saskatchewan rose to the challenge of running an election in a pandemic.
“Elections Saskatchewan did a pretty good job with the challenges they had… making sure that being able to vote was accessible to as many people as possible.”
This story has been updated to reflect the final numbers, and include results from surrounding ridings.
