SASKATOON — Jeff Walters is now an official candidate to be the leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party after their leadership committee approved his candidacy on Tuesday. He now has until Sept. 25 to raise $3,500 in donations to the party.
Another candidate was also approved but the individual withdrew citing financial reasons. Saskatoon-born Robert Rudachyk remains the interim leader of the Liberals in the province while they wait for the party’s convention on Oct. 16 to be held in the town of Davidson.
Delegates, party members, will vote whether or not Walters will be the next leader of the Liberals in the province during the convention. Registration for delegates, who will be eligible to cast his or her vote for the party leadership post, begins on Sept. 18 at noon.
The deadline to register delegates is set on Oct. 10 at 5 p.m. Voting will be done virtually as numbers will be limited for in-person attendance as a precautionary measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walters entered the political arena last year when he ran as a candidate of Regina Northeast in the provincial election but lost to Gary Grewal of the Saskatchewan Party. He then joined the party’s executive committee where he served as Strategy & Planning chair and later Chief Official Agent before stepping down to run for the leadership post.
He was born at Pasqua Hospital in Regina on Aug. 16, 1975. He worked as a Senior Programs Officer for Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in 2006 after obtaining his PhD in Sociology.
Walters also worked at the Federal Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat, specializing in compensating victims of residential schools in Canada, before being hired as SGI Canada’s Corporate Business Consultant in 2011.
He began teaching at the University of Regina’ Department of Sociology and Justice Studies in 2012 as a sessional lecturer and is presently one of a few full-time instructors with a designated IV (A) Priority position that has the highest seniority for a Sessional Lecturer.
