REGINA – The Saskatchewan election is the home stretch and in the final days of the 27-day campaign Global News will profile different political party leaders in the province.
On Friday, Teri Fikowski sat down with PC Party Leader Rick Swenson to discuss his party’s platform.
Q: In the last three days until voters head to the polls how are you feeling and where is your focus?
A: My focus the last week has been in my riding. That’s the problem with being the leader and also having a constituency (is that) you have to divide your time. But, this last few days it’s in Last Mountain Touchwood where we’re working hard, touching people and driving on those…pothole roads.
Q: So far over the 27-day campaign where has your party made strides?
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A: We had two things to accomplish. One thing was to reestablish the brand because it has been gone from the scene for a while and i think we’ve done pretty good. We’re on all forms of media; TV, radio, newsprint across the province. The other thing was to identify areas where we think we can do well and we’ve pretty much done that. We’ve gone to the east side of the province, across the south end and back up the west side to those strong traditional conservative areas. We’ve concentrated our efforts there and I’m very pleased with the way candidates are being received.
The PC Party has really made some impacts and now it’s about if you can translate that to votes
Q: What are the challenges, or even weaknesses, for the PC Party?
A: As always when you’ve been out of the scene as long as we were it’s (about) re-establishing the brand, re-establishing credibility and I think you’ve seen that. Prior to the election campaign we were the ones that pushed the issue around landownership in Saskatchewan and the government backed down. We were the ones that opened up the can of worms with the GTH and bypass and exposing that waste of taxpayers’ money, and once again the government had to react. We’ve been very strong on the issue of the health regions and the waste at the top end with management levels. I think people are saying, ‘that experiment of 22 years – it’s time to go back to what we knew with accountability at the legislature.’ So, the PC Party has really made some impacts and now it’s about if you can translate that to votes. Can you get back into the legislature? And our goal has always been to reenter the political process at that level.
I really like to get out in my boat in the middle of Long Lake
Q: When you’re out there door knocking and talking to voters, is it well received? Are you feeling that appetite for the PC Party?
A: Absolutely. If I’m not successful and some of the candidates I think it’s because we’ve just run out of time. The more people we talk to, the more people we touch, the more we address those issues people feel strongly about in those riding the better we are. I think people realize your government is only as good as your opposition and if you have a large government that gets a little arrogant and self-centered, and the opposition isn’t pushing and digging up those things that anger taxpayers then the government is being complacent.
Q: You obviously have a long history in Saskatchewan politics but what is something about Rick Swenson people might not know?
A: I really like to get out in my boat in the middle of Long Lake and spend the day whether I catch anything or not.
You can find more profiles on party candidates here: Global News did extend a number of invitations to the Saskatchewan Party but they were unable to accommodate our request.
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