ESTEVAN - Lori Carr is going back to the Saskatchewan Legislature as the Estevan-Big Muddy MLA.
With all 29 polling stations reporting, Carr was sitting at 5,112 of the 7,309 votes cast, or 69.9 per cent of the popular vote. Phil Smith of the New Democratic Party was second with 926 votes, Phil Zajac of the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan was third at 740, Andrew Cey of the Saskatchewan United Party was fourth at 449 and Billy Patterson of the Saskatchewan Green Party was fifth at 82.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. Monday night and Carr took a big lead when the first two polling stations reported results just before 9 p.m.
"It feels awesome to be able to represent Estevan-Big Muddy this time around," Carr said in an interview with the Mercury and SaskToday. "I have had the honour of my lifetime serving for the past eight years, and I'm truly looking forward to the next four."
Carr was first elected in the April 2016 election, and was re-elected in 2020, receiving 62.43 per cent of the popular vote four years ago.
"As I was door-knocking and talking to people, every now and then the other parties would come up [in conversation], and I just talked to people quite frankly about the realities of what some of them wanted to do, and if it was even possible," said Carr.
She thought Zajac might get more than the 24.26 per cent of the vote he attracted four years ago, but she believed her work over the past four years would resonate with voters.
"I am happy to see that the margin for him was less and mine was more this time around," said Carr.
Provincially, the Saskatchewan Party will form its fifth straight majority government. As of Tuesday morning, the party had 35 of 61 seats in the Saskatchewan legislature. The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party captured the other 26 seats. The Sask. Party majority wasn't declared official until late Monday.
"We always knew it was going to get closer," said Carr. "We've had 17 years of having the opportunity to serve. We were asking for a fifth term as government. It's not the longest-serving across Canada but we're getting pretty darn close … so we're asking a big thing.
"We have had some difficulties with health care, obviously, that we're coming through, and we can hopefully see an end to it. And that's not just specific to Saskatchewan, that's right across Canada."
At the start of the night, Carr thought the Saskatchewan Party would win 40 seats.
Several high-profile Sask. Party cabinet ministers were defeated in Regina and Saskatoon, as the NDP won all 12 ridings in Regina and 12 of 14 in Saskatoon. Carr, who had been the minister of Highways and Infrastructure, said she welcomes the chance to be back at the cabinet table, if Premier-elect Scott Moe would welcome her back into the role.
"I really think having a role in cabinet has helped our voice in this constituency get heard loud and clear, and I definitely want to have that voice moving forward," she said.
Carr is looking forward to seeing a significant number of new Sask. Party MLAs in the party's caucus.
"The year I got elected in 2016, there were 16 of us, so that was quite a number of new MLAs. We'll have a few more this time, I'm thinking. But I think it's exciting. I think it's renewal and I think we'll have fresh ideas."
Health care was the biggest concern that she heard from people during the campaign. When she started talking to them about the Health and Human Resources plan, as well as its objectives for the coming years and the strides she says the government is making, she believes people can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Education was a concern for some, she said, and there was a lot of talk about the future of the energy sector.
"We are the Energy City, therefore they want to know what that looks like in the future, so I tell them what the premier's been saying, that as long as it's feasible to burn coal, that's something we want to do, but we still need to plan for the future."
If the province does proceed with small modular reactors, the first would be built in Estevan.
"We will continue to produce power in this community and have good-paying jobs," said Carr.
In her victory speech delivered to a crowd of supporters at the Estevan Elks Club, Carr thanked the members of her campaign team and introduced the committee members.
"This is the team that helped me with all of my door-knocking, and I'm happy to say we were able to door-knock all of Estevan, as well as every rural town in our constituency," said Carr.
She reminded the audience that due to changes in the provincial boundaries, her riding doubled in size, mostly to the west. Radville was among the communities added. The constituency now extends beyond Highway 6 to the west.
"It was a vast area to take in, and all of these people were able to help me," she said.
Carr told the crowd she is thankful to live in the Estevan-Big Muddy constituency and have the support of its residents.
To the east of Estevan-Big Muddy, Daryl Harrison of the Saskatchewan Party was elected to a second term as the MLA for Cannington with 6,034 votes of the 8,188 votes cast, or 73.6 per cent of the popular vote. Dianne Twietmeyer of the Saskatchewan NDP was second with 1,058 votes, followed by Michelle Krieger of the Buffalo Party (540), Barbara Helfrick of the Saskatchewan United Party (420) and Natalie Lund-Clysdale of the Green Party (196).
Also, former Estevan resident Barret Kropf of the Saskatchewan Party was elected as the new MLA of Dakota-Arm River.
For in-depth coverage of the provincial election, please visit our provincial news hub at SaskToday.ca.
