A political science professor at the University of Saskatchewan says a sweep of the province by the Conservatives sends a message to the incoming Liberal minority government.
The Conservatives won all 14 seats in Saskatchewan, and Greg Poelzer said it sends a clear message to Ottawa that the province, along with Alberta, is not being listened to.
“I think they feel very alienated, and I think that really sending a message to Ottawa, ‘Hey, we’re here and Canada’s isn’t serving us the way we think it ought to be,’” Poelzer told Global News on Tuesday.
Poelzer said one of the main stumbling blocks is pipelines.
“When you look at the dynamic, especially on the pipeline politics, it almost looks like Quebec and B.C., in particular, are trying to block pipelines and we’re landlocked,” Poelzer said.
“We need to have the co-operation of the provinces. I think they feel very alienated.”
Trans Mountain hangs in the balance, and Poelzer said this is the million-dollar question.
“The Liberals have bought it, they still need to get it through,” he said.
“But, the NDP have set a hard no to it. So if they’re going to depend on the NDP for support, yes that’s one of the prices that the NDP are going to try to extract.”
Poelzer said it is hard to imagine the Conservatives would vote against Trans Mountain given the party’s past support for pipelines, but that might be the extent of any future pipelines in the foreseeable future.
“Future pipelines, like Energy East, I think those are extremely doubtful in this parliament,” Poelzer said.
One big surprise of the night for Poelzer was the defeat of Liberal Ralph Goodale after 26 years representing Regina-Wascana.
“He’s an icon in Canadian politics, one of the true gentlemen of Canadian politics,” Poelzer said.
“I think that’s a big loss for Canada.”
Poelzer said another big loss was Conservative Lisa Raitt in Ontario.
“I think Canada wasn’t served well by losing both Lisa Raitt and Ralph Goodale,” Poelzer said, adding Goodale and Raitt were able to rise above partisanship and see the greater public good.
“I think that’s going to lead to a more cantankerous parliament than we would if those two individuals had been in parliament.
Poelzer was also surprised by the margin of victory of Conservative Gary Vidal in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River.
“(The Conservatives) picked a very strong candidate — well-liked, well respected, but the get out the vote was not very strong, especially for the two Indigenous candidates, Georgina Jolibois and Tammy Cook-Searson and that made all the difference,” Poelzer said.
“His vote came out, their vote didn’t. But the gap of the victory, I think, was a bit of a surprise.”