The Saskatchewan Party leadership candidates have been coming through Yorkton, with only Tina Beaudry-Mellor being a stranger to these pages – though one assumes she will correct this oversight. Candidates are finding excuses to come to Yorkton, making stops at various events in the city to ingratiate themselves to the local voters.
Yorkton has been a fairly safe seat for the Saskatchewan Party since 2007, and it showed in the most recent provincial election, where the official opposition candidate was selected seemingly based on having the same first name and last initial as the incumbent.
This is making Yorkton a bit of a battleground in the leadership race, but in only one leadership race. The Saskatchewan Party candidates are eager to get out here, get to their base in the city, and get support in the community. The local MLA may have already given his endorsement, but the rest of the candidates aren’t giving up, because they know that as a safe seat, this is where they can find a large number of party faithful to reach and try to bring to their side.
The NDP, meanwhile, are also holding a leadership race, but you would be forgiven if you were unaware of it in Yorkton. While their last race, which lead to the leadership of Cam Broten, did make an effort to get out to Yorkton voters – all candidates at that time toured the city – none of their current candidates have had the same level of engagement locally. Saskatchewan Party candidates are eager to get out to the city, but NDP candidates have mostly written us off.
If the NDP wants to rebuild their rural support, they need to be as eager in getting out to places like Yorkton as their competitors are. They might not have the same number of supporters in the city as their opponents do, but never will match them if they’re ignoring the city in the election race. The leadership candidate isn’t just building support for their upcoming election, but also for the eventual provincial election down the road. Even if there are few votes up for grabs, they will find it impossible to get any support if they treat the region like a lost cause.
That is how a safe seat is born, when there’s a perception that only one party cares for your region, only one party is going to get any votes in it. So the NDP needs to be like the Saskatchewan Party and start sending their leadership candidates over here if they ever want any hope of getting any support in the city.
