It was right back to work for Vicki Mowat on Friday after bringing the Saskatchewan NDP to victory, dominating the vote count and defeating the Saskatchewan Party in the Saskatoon Fairview byelection the previous night.
“I want to be able to fight for them, I want to be able to fight for life to be affordable,” Mowat said.
READ MORE: Vicki Mowat MLA-elect for Saskatoon Fairview
A total of 4,572 voters had their say on byelection day, according to the preliminary voting results from Elections Saskatchewan.
The voter turnout of 35.7 per cent was significantly less than that seen in the 2016 provincial election, where 50.1 per cent of the constituency cast a ballot.
By night’s end, Mowat had secured 60 per cent support from voters, with her election party headquarters declaring a victory 40 minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m. CT.
It brought on on a surge of congratulatory social media messages including one from Premier Brad Wall.
So now that everything is over, what’s the first thing Mowat plans to tackle when she arrives at the legislature?
“I think the real issue is what I was hearing on the doorsteps from people – concerns with the Sask. Party’s mismanagement and unfair tax hikes,” Mowat said.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people who are struggling, people are hurting in the area and I just want to be able to represent them.”
READ MORE: Conflict of Interest Commissioner will not launch a GTH inquiry
It’s a shift in the winds for the Sask. Party that in recent months has been bombarded with questions surrounding the GTH land deal and decisions made during the last budget.
“We expected the push was on here to say something to the province, we did that,” Saskatoon’s Lorne Figley said.
Bill Dustin was of the same opinion, “I’m not surprised at all because people are really unhappy with what’s going on right now and I don’t personally feel like they’re doing a very good job looking after our province.”
Cameron Scott was running for the Sask. Party and was Mowat’s biggest contender. He was gracious about the loss and admitted there were several factors in play.
“I think there were some tough decisions made in the budget and I think it does resonate with people.”
Whether he’ll run in the next general election in 2020, possibly against Mowat once again, Scott said it was too early to commit but would hesitate to say no.
According to Joe Garcea, a political scientist with the University of Saskatchewan, it’s worth a shot for Scott to reconsider throwing his name in the hat even despite the defeat.
“Because they’ll have laid the foundation, built up the machine and networks within that constituency.”
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