CANNINGTON - Daryl Harrison is going to spend another four years in the Saskatchewan legislature as Cannington's MLA.
Harrison was re-elected during Monday night's provincial election. He captured 6,034 of the 8,188 votes cast, or 73.6 per cent of the popular vote. Dianne Twietmeyer of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP) was second with 1,058 votes, followed by Michelle Krieger of the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan (540), Barbara Helfrick of the Saskatchewan United Party (420) and Natalie Lund-Clysdale of the Saskatchewan Green Party (196).
The Progressive Conservative Party and the Saskatchewan Progress Party (formerly the Saskatchewan Liberals) did not have a candidate in the riding.
"I'm thankful and I'm humbled that the voters of Cannington allowed me to represent them for another four years. I just can't describe how that made me feel," Harrison said in an interview with the Observer and SaskToday.
Voting closed at 8 p.m. on election night and Cannington was among the first ridings to report early results just after 8:30 p.m. Harrison had a big lead after just two of the 40 polling stations came in, and nobody ever came close.
He was surprised by the margin of victory, even though Cannington has traditionally been a conservative-friendly constituency.
The Saskatchewan Party was re-elected to a fifth consecutive majority government on election night. It's just the second time that it has happened in Saskatchewan's history; the NDP also had such a dynasty from 1944-1964.
But the Sask. Party will have a smaller government this time, as they held 35 of the 61 seats in the legislature on election night. The NDP captured the other 26. The NDP controls the two largest cities in the province, as they won all 12 seats in Regina and 12 of 14 in Saskatoon.
Harrison said he thought the Saskatchewan Party would do better in the two big cities, but the rest of the province went as he expected.
"I think the province-wide results show we have more work to do, and we're willing to do it. We'll carry on with the business of making Saskatchewan the best place to live in Canada, we'll have a strong growing economy, and we're going to have a bright future," said Harrison.
Health care and highways were the biggest concerns he heard on the campaign trail. On the health-care front, a number of health centres in the southeast have had temporary service interruptions during the past four years, including Oxbow, Arcola and Redvers, due to staffing shortages.
"Our recruiting, retaining, training and incentivizing of our health-care workers, there's more work to do there," said Harrison. "We have to keep our health-care facilities operational, and that's still a focus of this government."
There's also always improvements that can be made for highways across the province. Harrison claims the government has committed to 1,000 kilometres of improvements per year, and he added they're ahead of the pace.
Highway 9 from the Canada-U.S. border to the north boundary edge beyond Langbank is one route that generates a lot of concerns. Others are Highway 13 from Redvers to the Manitoba border and Highway 47 north of Stoughton.
Harrison stressed the backbones of the province remain oil and gas, mining and agriculture.
"The rare earth elements will play a huge factor," said Harrison. "You'll see more development in the lithium sector as well as the helium. And then agriculture, when you're a province with 40 per cent of the arable farmland in Canada, it will continue to be a big player in Saskatchewan's economy."
Harrison said he was able to get to each community in the constituency during the campaign, even though several communities were added to the riding due to the redrawing of the provincial constituency boundary maps a couple of years ago. On election day, he didn't have a lot of time to meet with people because he was travelling throughout the riding. Election night was spent at home following the results with his family.
"It was a later night than what I expected, but it was good. I can't say enough about the people that supported me in this 2024 election."
If given the chance, Harrison said he would welcome the opportunity to be in cabinet. During his first four years as an MLA, he did not hold a cabinet position. But he points out it's up to the premier to decide who serves as a minister.
Cannington has long been a conservative stronghold in provincial politics. Since the riding was formed in 1975, it has been represented by either a Progressive Conservative or a Sask. Party member. And there have been just three MLAs in its nearly 50-year history, with Harrison joining Eric Berntson (1975-1991) and Dan D'Autremont (1991-2020) as the MLAs.
For comments from the other candidates in Cannington, please see Page 6.
For comprehensive coverage of the election, please visit our provincial news hub at sasktoday.ca
