SASKATOON — The Saskatchewan NDP has fielded 15 candidates to face the Saskatchewan Party’s political machinery in Saskatoon ridings.
Five seek to keep their legislative assembly seats when the province takes to the polls on Monday, Oct. 28.
Betty Nippi-Albright (Saskatoon Centre), Matt Love (Saskatoon Eastview), Vicki Mowat (Saskatoon Fairview), Erika Richie (Saskatoon Nutana), and Nathaniel Teed (Saskatoon Meewasin) are members of the previous legislative assemblies.
Mowat, the NDP deputy leader, is the longest-serving MLA among the five after being elected in 2017. She is the opposition’s official Critic for Health and Mental Health Addictions and has been hammering the Saskatchewan Party for failing to address the province’s healthcare crisis.
Betty Nippi-Albright, Matt Love, and Erika Richie were elected in the 2020 election, while Nathaniel Teed replaced former Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili, who retired from politics after beating Saskatchewan Party’s Kim Groff in the 2022 by-election.
Nippi-Albright, from Kinistin Saulteaux Nation, has advocated for improving communication with First Nations and introduced Bill 609, an Act respecting the Meaningful Implementation of the Crown’s Duty to Consult in Saskatchewan.
Love was a former teacher at Aden Bowman Collegiate. He focused on social justice and anti-racist education, earning him the Opposition’s Critic for Education position when he was elected in 2020. He was also the Critic for Rural and Remote Health.
Richie advocates for workers’ interests and rights and environmental, economic, and social justice. She continues to work to make Saskatchewan economically and environmentally sustainable for the future.
Teed holds an education degree from the University of Saskatchewan and worked as a teacher before becoming the first openly gay MLA. Aside from being the NDP’s Deputy Whip, he is also the Critic for Parks, Culture and Sport, Tourism, SLGA, SaskGaming, and SGI.
The other NDP candidates are Kim Breckner (Riversdale), April ChiefCalf (Westview), Hugh Gordon (Silverspring), Tajinder Grewal (University-Sutherland), Keith Jorgensen (Churchill-Wildwood), Don McBean (Chief Mistawasis), Doug Racine (Rivers), Britney Senger (Southeast), Alana Wakula (Willowgrove), and Darcy Warrington (Stonebrige).
Breckner is a lawyer who is in private practice specializing in corporate, employment, mining and renewable energy law; ChiefCalf teaches an Indigenous teacher education program at the University of Saskatchewan but spent 19 years in La Ronge to work for the Northern Teacher Education Program that was defunded and closed by the Saskatchewan Party in 2017; Gordon, a retired RCMP officer where he served for 24 years, wants to find a solution in fully funding the province’s K-12 education, fixing the public healthcare system, creating more good-paying jobs, and making life more affordable if given a chance to represent Saskatoon Silverspring.
Grewal is known in Saskatchewan’s scientific research community as he had various roles in SGS Canada Inc., the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Research Council, as well as a known cultural advocate with his volunteer works with the Punjabi Cultural Association of Saskatchewan and serving as a board member on various foundations and non-profit organizations; Jorgensen is also committed to funding education in the province being a former educator and administrator where he helped kids with complex needs, while also believing in building safe communities. His bakery has donated over 400,000 food items and raised more than $100,000, giving them to various non-profit organizations. McBean is a retired principal who has taught across Canada, where he helped kids reach their full potential and hopes to help an honest and principled NDP government if he wins.
Racine is a veteran and a lawyer who understands the needs of small towns after growing up in rural Saskatchewan. His law career expanded to criminal, civil, and administrative while representing the Nuclear Safety Commission and National Energy Board in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan courts. Senger was born and raised in Saskatoon and is known as a dedicated non-profit organizer. She also used her Political Studies degree at the University of Saskatchewan in her policy work at the Broadbent Institute and Equal Voice. She has worked in local and national non-profit groups like Amnesty International, Women in the Legislature and the Saskatchewan Ukrainian Students Association.
Wakula is a lawyer who opened Wakula Law, a female-operated firm, after working with Legal Aid Saskatchewan. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan College of Law and volunteered to provide pro bono legal advice to various organizations. Warrington, who has roots in rural Saskatchewan, where he helps his family and friends on their farms during summer, worked as a teacher at the Saskatoon Public School Division for 14 years and has been active in the community by serving as secretary for the Stonebridge Community Association and the Adelaide Park Churchill Community Association since 2020.
