REGINA - As the final week of the federal election campaign kicks off, advance polls have been open around the country and in Saskatchewan.
Advance polls opened on Good Friday April 18 at 9 a.m. and they were open through the weekend and into Easter Monday April 21, with polls open until 9 p.m. today.
Reports are that voters have taken advantage of the advance polls with some lengthy lineups being reported at polling booths.
The next opportunity to vote will be on Election Day, April 28 with polls open that day from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Saskatchewan.
This past week on the campaign trail was dominated by the televised debates on Wednesday and Thursday.
The four major party leaders — Liberal Mark Carney, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh and the Bloc Québécois’ Yves-Francois Blanchet tangled in Montreal.
During the debates Carney tried to portray himself as the man best positioned to deal with President Donald Trump and the tariff “crisis.” But he took hits as opposition leaders took aim at him throughout the debates.
Both Poilievre and Blanchet took turns attacking Carney during the French debate last Wednesday; when Poilievre attacked the Liberal record Carney responded by saying “I just got here.”
The English debate proved to be more of the same, with both Blanchet and Singh in particular looking like leaders with nothing to lose, going on the attack against Carney and Blanchet. Singh ended up spending a lot of time interrupting Poilievre which earned him poor marks from those on social media.
Carney seemed more comfortable on stage than in the French debate, but seemed to lose steam as the debate moved on from tariffs and Trump to focus on other issues late in the debate. Poilievre came on particularly strong late in the debate as he rebutted Liberal attacks on him for not getting a security clearance.
But a major story from the debates came not on the stage, but in the media room. The debates saw the presence of a large number of independent right-leaning media outlets.
After those outlets dominated the Wednesday post-debate scrum hurling questions at the party leaders, tensions about their presence seemed to boil over Thursday when Hill Times’ reporter Stuart Benson got in a loud verbal exchange with Rebel News publisher Ezra Levant. That was caught on video and went viral on social media.
What ended up happening was that the media scrum was cancelled Thursday, with much acrimony and finger-pointing in the aftermath.
Afterwards, leaders returned to the campaign trail. Carney released the Liberal platform Saturday, but the party took heat for proposing another $130 billion in new spending in the next term. Combined with existing spending that would balloon the debt up by $225 billion.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, took heat because they hadn’t released their full platform yet. The indication is they will release their platform Tuesday.
Saskatchewan campaign sees visits from Freeland, Bernier
Back in Saskatchewan on the campaign trail this past week, there were some notable appearances. In Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River, the Liberals’ Chrystia Freeland was campaigning in Saskatchewan with candidate Buckley Belanger, who is in a tight race trying to end a five-year Conservative hold on the northern riding.
Meanwhile, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier was with Saskatchewan candidates Saturday afternoon in Moose Jaw. It was Bernier’s only Saskatchewan appearance of the campaign.
Other than that, the campaign trail remained relatively quiet in Saskatchewan, with local campaigns throughout the province concentrating on canvassing efforts in the 14 ridings.
It is unclear whether any other federal leaders will make any further appearances in Saskatchewan, as they have concentrated lately on battleground areas of Ontario and BC.
Both Carney and Singh held rallies in Saskatoon at the midpoint of the campaign. Conservative leader Poilievre has yet to schedule an appearance in Saskatchewan and he is beginning to run out of calendar. He is scheduled to hold a rally in Vaughan, north of Toronto, on Tuesday.
Interestingly, so far none of the major leaders from any of the major parties have had a campaign stop in Regina during this entire campaign.
