The Saskatchewan Legislative Building at Wascana Centre in Regina on Saturday, May 30, 2020.Mark Taylor/The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan voters will choose 61 MLAs to sit in the legislature once they are sworn in after Monday’s provincial election. Here are five constituency races worth watching.
Saskatoon Riversdale
The Saskatchewan Party hopes candidate Marv Friesen can win in the long-time NDP stronghold. The businessman ran and lost to the NDP’s Danielle Chartier in the 2016 election by less than 300 votes. She isn’t seeking re-election and Ashlee Hicks, a woman from the Cowessess First Nation, is running for the New Democrats. The seat has in the past been held by former NDP premiers Lorne Calvert and Roy Romanow. It’s never been won by the Saskatchewan Party.
Saskatoon Meewasin
One of the seats the NDP wants to hold onto is that of its leader, Ryan Meili, who became the constituency’s legislature member when he won a by-election in 2017. He won the party’s leadership a year later. The seat had come up for grabs after the death of former Saskatchewan Party MLA Roger Parent. Saskatoon lawyer and businessman Rylund Hunter is running for the Sask. Party.
Regina Walsh Acres
An ousted NDP candidate who decided to run as an Independent shook up the race before the campaign officially began. Sandra Morin is a former NDP cabinet minister whose candidacy was blocked by Meili weeks before the election call for reasons neither have disclosed. The New Democrats named labour relations officer Kelly Hardy as their new candidate. The seat has sat vacant since the 2019 federal election campaign, when its Saskatchewan Party MLA Warren Steinley was elected as an member of Parliament for the riding of Regina Lewvan. Former sports anchor Derek Meyers is running for the Sask. Party.
Regina University
The race is a rematch for the Saskatchewan Party and NDP candidates who fought for the seat in the 2016 election. Former University of Regina instructor Tina Beaudry-Mellor ultimately won it for the Sask. Party over the NDP’s Alena Young, a business owner and school board trustee, by fewer than 500 votes. The constituency was new in the last election. Beaudry-Mellor, who served in cabinet as minister for advanced education, is trying to best Young once again.
Moose Jaw Wakamow
It’s one of the few urban seats outside of Saskatoon and Regina that the NDP hopes to pick up. Melissa Patterson, a Casino Moose Jaw table games dealer, is running against Saskatchewan Party incumbent Greg Lawrence. He was first elected in 2011 and again in 2016 by about 670 votes. In decades past, the NDP held the constituency, which flipped to the Saskatchewan Party under Lawrence.