The night the writ dropped a planned constituency association meeting was turned into a door knocking/sign planting evening.
In my experience, when a house has two competing signs, it’s usually meant that a husband and wife support different candidates but I learned from my sign planting colleague that in her culture, this can also be a way to not cause offence to one candidate or the other if two people are considered part of your extended family. This ends up “balancing out” support without favour, no different than not having a sign at all.
Ironically, after the entire election passed, on the final night I found myself out pulling last minutes votes in the dark on the same street I’d started the election period before heading to my local polling station to act as a scrutineer.
So, as I type this, it’s Wednesday evening and I’ve had a couple days to digest the results. Here are a few random thoughts and memories…
– I think everyone (well, on the NDP side anyhow!) got excited when some last minute polling showed that, almost unbelievably the NDP were within striking distance of forming government. Given their low seat count going into the election, that would be a turnaround that’s only happened twice in the province’s history – once for Tommy Douglas and once for Grant Devine.
– A friend made a good point that they hoped that such almost unbelievable polling could end up having the effect of leaving supporters disappointed instead of realising what it meant to go from a 42-14 seat disadvantage to a 34-27 near tie with (I believe) one close seat – Saskatoon-Willowgrove which is held by the Sask Party but could flip to NDP to complete the city sweep – still to be decided.
– In fact, I talked to another person who said that at the start of the campaign, they thought the NDP might pick up half a dozen seats at most but ended up getting more than double that as momentum built.
– It’s amazing b/c even in opposition, the NDP will now have a lot more resources to hold the government to account, dig into their scandals and corruption and so on.
– Had a laugh when I got asked awhile back if I might be interested in putting my name down as a candidate in a rural riding. “Uhm, like a paper candidate?” Well more than that – it’s a riding we might have a chance in. “Uhm, have you seen my social media footprint? The Sask Party operatives would have a field day counting how many times I called Scott Moe “poopy pants”. 😉
– The NDP all but swept the cities of Regina and Saskatoon which has created what I believe is a very unique split Legislature in a way that the urban/rural divide has never been more evident.
– A lot of attention is focusing on this split as urban/rural but another commentator pointed out that it’s really more about “educated/uneducated”. That’s because cities tend to have more white collar workers, that’s where the Universities are, that’s where even the people who are educated (at least in the school sense) are exposed to a broader range of people/cultures/experiences. (I don’t know but suspect there are very few “out” gay people in rural Sask let alone trans people. In the city, this is quite common and much more widely accepted.). In a rural area, you don’t necessarily need higher education to run a farm or work in the oil patch yet can still make really good money. Cost of living is often cheaper in small towns as well.
– I even had my point proven by using my time arguing with trolls one Sunday morning (I know!) but it was interesting that someone who was anti-trans said he wouldn’t care if his kid was gay, only if they were trans since that’s not real and is a mental illness. I pointed out that trans people today are where gay people were about 30-40 years ago and homosexuality was only removed from the DSM-1 in 1973 then gay people had to fight for rights and recognition for decades after that to get to the point that it was acceptable to have a gay son or daughter.
– Sad to see someone stumbling along the sidewalk, one socked foot and one bare, as I headed to the downtown NDP Victory party host hotel. This is really who will be hurt the most by this election – the people who are among the most disadvantaged in society. Or the homeless person who I talked to near the Sask Party HQ building in Regina and tried to help as best I could but wanted to direct into Sask Party HQ and say “They’re the people who can help you in a real way.”
– It’s hard to imagine that Scott Moe will be able to stay on as leader of the Sask Party. Sure he won but it was really a drubbing, a poorly run campaign, tons of MLAs abandoned ship, many cabinet ministers were defeated, etc. I mean, Carla Beck celebrated in a packed downtown Regina ballroom (with an equally big crowd celebrating in Saskatoon) and Scott Moe had his “victory” party in…his hometown rink?!?
– He said he heard the message from the cities but I’ll believe it when I see it.
– Speaking of cities, what would’ve made it even closer is if Moose Jaw and Prince Albert put on their big boy pants and acted like their fellow large cities, Regina and Saskatoon instead of like small town Sask Party strongholds like Rosthern and Sturgis.
– Some of that is likely on the NDP strategy team as I think that was the most common thing I heard people say they were surprised about – being shut out in these two secondary cities completely.
– The far right parties (Buffalo, United) didn’t play as much of a role as some expected and though I would’ve liked vote splitting to help the NDP, I’d prefer it come from a more centrist party like the Liberals used to do in Sask instead of the far-right getting any more attention.
Anyhow, those are a few quick thoughts. Is it too early to start getting excited for the next election in 2028?
