A new year can bring many firsts. For Premier Scott Moe and Opposition Leader Ryan Meili, 2020 will include the first general election for both at the helm of their respective political parties.
“I’m very much looking forward to the coming election this next year. It’s an exciting time for a politician but also an exciting time for the people in the province that will be involved in that,” Moe said.
Of course, neither leader will spill the beans on their platform specifics in a year-end interview, but both said they’re looking beyond the four-year election cycle.
For the governing Saskatchewan Party, Moe said they will be focusing on three points.
“The vision we’re really putting forward has three points to it; the economic independence and economic success we can have over the course of the next ten years and highlighted in some of the targets we released in the second version of the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth,” Moe explained.
This includes goals of growing the population to 1.4 million people by 2030 and adding 100,000 jobs.
The second point is financial stability, which Moe said is accomplished through tabling a balanced budget in 2020. As of November’s mid-year fiscal update, the government’s budget plan appears to be on track.
“We are no longer spending our children’s inheritance, spending the next generation’s investment, if you will, which will create them that very same opportunity that we have had to invest in infrastructure like a Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital,” Moe said on the balanced budget plan.
While the getting out of deficit spending has been a priority for the government, capital spending has contributed to growing the province’s public debt load from $4.15 billion in the 2010 budget to $21 billion now.
Third priority, find more ways to expand provincial independence. Moe said this includes previously discussed ideas like seeking more immigration control and Saskatchewan potentially collecting its own income tax.
Both of these ideas come from Quebec, where citizens fill out two tax returns instead of just one.
Is an NDP government realistic?
The Saskatchewan Party currently enjoys a comfortable majority in the legislature, 46 of the province’s 61 seats. The NDP holds 13 seats, and two are vacant following the resignation of now Conservative MPs Warren Steinley and Corey Tochor.
The NDP will need to add 18 seats in the October 2020 vote if they want to form government. Meili said this is “absolutely” a realistic possibility.
“I think there’s a lot of desire for change in this province, and it’s true we’re the underdogs. We have fewer seats and we don’t have the big corporate out of province dollars that the Sask. Party has,” Meili said.
“We also don’t have the baggage that they have after a decade of bad decisions that are weighing more and more on the reputation of this party.”
In the past two elections, the NDP has been shutout of rural Saskatchewan. Their only wins have come in Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and the two northern ridings.
With this in mind, Meili is making it a priority to avoid a third rural shutout.
“It has seemed like there’s a sense that the NDP forgot about rural Saskatchewan, and that’s something that’s really important for me to turn around,” Meili said.
“I grew up on a farm southwest of Moose Jaw. I care deeply about every part of this province, but I have those rural roots and I think that needs to come across in the policies we put forward and the message we share.”
This includes recent work, like lobbying to decrease the threshold to use the federal Agristability program.
Another outcome Meili hopes to avoid in 2020, the unseating of the NDP leader. Dwain Lingenfelter lost his Regina seat in 2011, and his successor, Cam Broten, failed to hold onto his seat in 2016.
Meili is aware of the challenge and likelihood of the Saskatchewan Party aiming for a three-peat in toppling NDP leaders in their home riding.
“One of the things that’s a challenge with being the leader of a provincial party is you need to be in your own seat. In the legislature you need to be in every part of the province, and in a campaign you have to be out on the doorstep not just in my own community but everywhere in the province,” Meili said.
“However, I’m feeling quite confident. There’s been a shift. There’s a shift towards a frustration with the Sask. Party, a recognition of the way they’ve been letting people down. They’re letting people down on healthcare, on education, on the economy, there’s a frustration out there.”
Saskatchewan voters will head to the polls twice in two weeks next year. The provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 26 and the municipal/school board elections are set for Nov. 9.
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