ESTEVAN - Robert Kitchen is proud of his work and his tenure as the MP in Souris-Moose Mountain.
Kitchen announced on Monday that he will not seek another term in the next federal election, expected to happen in 2025. Kitchen was first elected to the post in 2015, and was re-elected in 2019 and 2021.
He will remain the MP until the next election.
Kitchen had stated last fall that he planned to run in the next election, but that was when he thought there could be an election in late 2023 or sometime in 2024. Now he expects Canadians won't go to the polls until the next scheduled date in the fall of 2025, at the earliest.
"When we win that next election, then that's another four years down the road," Kitchen said in an interview with SaskToday.
Spending time with his family also factored into his decision.
"I have deprived my family, over the past 10 years, of so much, from having the opportunity to be there for my wife, who is my best friend, from my kids and my grandkids. It's time that I spend with them," said an emotional Kitchen.
He pointed out that when his children played a sport, he stressed the importance of being committed until the finish. When the finish happened, then they could decide if they wanted to continue.
"But in between there, if you're friends are going south for a winter vacation, you're still playing hockey. You're still figure skating. And that's something I believe in. And I wouldn't want to turn around … halfway through the next election, or after the election, and say I want to leave," said Kitchen.
The party has already started the nomination process, so even if a snap election were to be triggered before the end of this year, Kitchen said he wouldn't be running for re-election.
Serving as the MP had a lot of highs and a lot of lows, Kitchen said. He was hoping to eventually sit on the government side of the House of Commons, but he will wind up being an opposition MP for his 10 years of service. It was tough deciding to retire considering the Tories currently hold a large lead in the polls.
"It was a decision that I'm comfortable with, and it was the right decision," said Kitchen.
As for the highs, the election victories were memorable. He had the highest percentage of the vote in Canada in 2021 at 76.4 per cent and the second-highest in 2019 at 84.4 per cent. Winning the first election in 2015 was also exciting.
He said he was always eager to talk to his constituents, but a low came when he couldn't see them face to face during the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Souris-Moose Mountain is a massive riding at 43,000 square kilometres, and it's only going to get bigger for the next election.
"We have our coal miners. We have our SaskPower workers. We have our energy workers. We have our oil and gas workers. We have our agriculture in our faming and we have our ranchers. We have potash," said Kitchen.
"And then we have so many communities with so many small businesses that provide such a great service to this area, and I have wanted and enjoyed that opportunity to try to do my best to keep that population and that base here," said Kitchen.
Kitchen said it will be important for the new Tory candidate to be someone who lives within the riding. He faced parachute candidates for the Liberals in each election, and also had to go against someone from the NDP who didn't live in the constituency. Those who live in the riding have a firm grasp about its people.
"I've made it my effort to get out to every community as often as I can, and that's often [going to be] a huge toll … on their family, and it will be a huge impact on them, by having to put on all of those miles, and getting out to talk and learn from people, so that they're learning something new every day. That's something I've always believed in, that I needed to learn something new everyday."
Two candidates, Steven Bonk and Mike Strachan, have already announced their intentions to run for the Conservative Party's nomination for this riding in the next federal election.
