The Saskatchewan Liberal Party will now be known as the Saskatchewan Progress Party.
The party, which also bills itself as the SPP, announced the rebranding Wednesday morning. The party said the new name and look emphasize its belief that government exists to serve the citizens of Saskatchewan and is accountable to the people.
“It’s time,” said party leader Jeff Walters. “If we aim to modernize and bring the province into the future, we must be willing to do the same.”
The SPP said a policy convention will be coming in October. Policies will stem from the input of Saskatchewan residents as the party meets with the public in the coming weeks and months.
Get breaking National news
“The swirl symbolizes the force that brings people together to unite the province beyond divisive politics,” said Walters, referring to the party’s new logo.
“We want to build a bright future that sees all people of Saskatchewan working together to make our province a place to call home.”
Global News spoke with Jeff Walters, who said every other major political party in the province has undergone a renaming and rebrand, noting it was their turn.
Over 300 submissions for new names were given by the public, and Walters said the list got whittled down to 10 and the party members chose from those submissions.
He said with this rebrand they’ll be able to entertain ideas they may not have been able to in the past, comparing the Saskatchewan liberal ideology to many other ideologies, calling them a straight jacket.
“To detach from that and to create the goal of being post partisan allows us to break out of that straight jacket and entertain ideas. If an idea can bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people in this province, we would be remiss not to entertain the idea or even look at it.”
Daniel Westlake, a political studies professor at USask, said this is an attempt at a rebrand, but he wasn’t sure if the party would see the electoral effects that they are hoping for.
He said there needs to be a desire from voters for a different party to vote for.
“Right now voters on the centre-right seem to be quite happy with Sask. Party and voters on the centre-left seem to be quite happy with the NDP,” Westlake said.
He said in first past the post politics it’s really hard for smaller parties, noting they need to find groups of people alienated by either the Sask. Party or the NDP.
“Unfortunately for the Progress Party if there are voters alienated from one of the two parties, and I’m not sure there are that many, it’s probably more on the right of the Sask. Party.”
Westlake addressed whether a change should come from the NDP as well, saying they could change their name, but they’d still be seen as a progressive, centre-left party.
“We can talk about changing names, but if the parties are still seen the same way and voters in Saskatchewan have the same views it’s not going to change a lot.”
Comments