MOOSOMIN — The Saskatchewan Party will continue to hold power after a majority vote won the party 34 seats (53 per cent of votes) with the NDP claiming 27 seats (40 per cent of the vote). Those numbers are current to the second preliminary count held on Oct. 30, with the final count slated for Nov. 9.
In Moosomin-Montmartre, the Saskatchewan Party’s Kevin Weedmark won with 5,253 votes, followed by the NDP’s Chris Ball (1,888 votes), Saskatchewan United Party’s Adam Erickson (608 votes), the Green Party’s Remi Rheault (120 votes), and the Buffalo Party’s Otis Ayre (72 votes).
Melville-Saltcoats will see incumbent Warren Kaeding retain his position with 5,124 votes, followed by the NDP’s Karen Hovind with 1,904, the Saskatchewan United Party with 610, the Green Party’s Micah Mang with 86, and the Buffalo Party’s Frank Serfas with 72.
In Cannington, incumbent MLA Daryl Harrison ably held onto his seat with 6,121 votes, followed by the NDP’s Dianne Twietmeyer with 1,103, the Buffalo Party’s Michelle Krieger with 545, the Saskatchewan United Party’s Barbara Helfrick with 423, and the Green Party’s Natalie Lund-Clysdale with 139.
“I was very happy and excited about those results,” Harrison said asked how he felt about returning to Regina. On the last day of voting, Harrison travelled his constituency, touching base in every community.
Overall, Harrison is looking forward to what the combination of new MLAs and those returning will bring to the provincial government.
“Certainly it’s exciting times, some fresh faces and new ideas come to the table,” he said. “Renewal’s always good, necessary to maintain a fresh government. I’m quite excited about the team that is heading to the Legislature.”
Melville-Saltcoats will continue to see incumbent Warren Kaeding retain his position with 5,124 votes, followed by the NDP’s Karen Hovind with 1,904, the Saskatchewan United Party with 610, the Green Party’s Micah Mang with 86, and the Buffalo Party’s Frank Serfas with 72.
“I’d say the first reaction and the second reaction was relief,” Kaeding replied when asked with his reaction was when he realized he’d return. “Relief that we’re able to continue the good work that we started here going into the election. And it’s not really the campaign promises, it’s the budget that we released in early spring, and there were a lot of really good initiatives in there that we were really hoping we’d be able to get to fruition because we think there’s going to be some really positive results out of those.”
One thing Kaeding is curious about is why voter turnout was so much lower than anticipated.
“Coming through the Covid election in 2020, you kind of wrote off the low turnout to COVID,” he said. “But this one, there was no reason for anybody not to vote. There’s the extended voting window that literally gave people eight days to vote. We need to find out, why did 40-some per cent of the people just feel compelled that they weren’t going to vote or weren’t interested in voting.”
Like Harrison, Kaeding is excited to see the new team assembled at the Legislature and hear different viewpoints.
“I’m really looking forward to it because there are new faces, there’s a new demographic there, there’s a lot of younger people there that are going to be coming with new and current ideas,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of new people at that cabinet table, and these are people with minimal to no cabinet experience. So we’re going to have to ask our constituents to be patient because these are folks that are not going to know everything about making final decisions. We’re just asking for everyone’s patience and just allowing these folks the opportunity to succeed in their cabinet posts.”
