Stating he is leaving the party in good hands, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall bid farewell to party members at the Saskatchewan Party leadership convention.
Wall announced last August he was retiring from politics.
In his keynote speech, Wall said he is leaving the party in good shape with a strong lead in the polls as the government deals with an unpopular budget.
“If you ask Saskatchewan people about some specific measures in the budget, they didn’t like it,” Wall told the crowd.
Wall stated, though, that the people of the province accept the plan to get the province out its deficit and the government is listening to the people.
“Some of the decisions we have made in government in the last while is because we’ve been hearing from the candidates who’ve been hearing from Saskatchewan people,” Wall said.
WATCH BELOW: Outgoing Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall gives thanks
He went on to blast the Alberta government for running a $10 billion deficit with no immediate plan to pay it back and said the NDP in Saskatchewan would do the same.
He said once a new leader is chosen, the party must look to the next provincial election in 2020 as he launched a blistering attack on the NDP.
“I have seen for 10 years the Opposition, they’ve done some good work … they’ve pushed us on issues and done their job,” Wall stated.
“The part that’s frustrated me the most is when they were almost gleeful, overanxious to point out … that the growth is going to come to end, what’s happened for the last 10 years is an anomaly.
“That’s the choice on one side – fear.”
WATCH BELOW: Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall discusses 2020 election
At the same time he heralded his government’s achievements around economic development and population growth, as well as its steadfast resistance to a carbon tax called for by the federal Liberal government.
Wall said the Saskatchewan Party will win the next election if they are united coming out of the convention.
“If we come out humble, and hardworking, and disciplined, offering a vision and a program worthy of this great province, and come out united behind a leader, well then we know who wins, because this is the new Saskatchewan.”
Wall enjoyed unbridled economic and political success throughout much of his tenure as premier, leading his Saskatchewan Party to three straight majority governments.
He has always placed at or near the top of polls ranking the country’s most popular political leaders.
But the province’s fortunes have changed as resource prices dipped in recent years, pushing public spending into the red.
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Wall surprised many in August when he announced he was calling it quits as public anger was lingering over an austerity budget that both raised taxes and made deep spending cuts.
Four former provincial cabinet ministers and a senior civil servant are seeking the job.
The front-runners to replace him are widely thought to be former advanced education and environment minister Scott Moe, the premier’s former deputy minister Alanna Koch and Ken Cheveldayoff, who has served in different cabinet portfolios since the Saskatchewan Party formed government in 2007.
Observers have pegged former justice minister Gord Wyant and former social services minister Tina Beaudry-Mellor as long shots.
With files from The Canadian Press
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