SASKATOON — As the provincial election nears its end, Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe said that he is proud of their positive campaign in delivering the message to the people and is not concerned with the issues that happened along the way.
There is a possibility the conservative votes might split four ways between the Saskatchewan Party, the Buffalo Party, the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan, and the Saskatchewan United Party.
Under leader Phil Zajac, Buffalo fielded 16 candidates while the Progressive Conservative had 11, including leader Rose Buscholl. The Saskatchewan United had 31, along with former Saskatchewan Party members Nadine Wilson (Saskatchewan Rivers), Greg Brkich (Saskatoon Southeast), and Dennis Allchurch (Meadow Lake). Most of the candidates are running in the province’s rural ridings.
When asked during a scrum with reporters on Saturday, Oct. 26, at Prairieland Park, Moe remains confident with their chances of remaining in government as they aim to win each of the 61 seats in the provincial legislature behind a dynamic group of candidates.
“No. Listen, there is a point here and the media should have a look at it. There is a risk here, and we saw it. I've said many times in Alberta that if you want to split the centre-right vote, you can go ahead and do that, but you won't; you aren't going to outsmart history. That's how the accidental NDP government was elected in 2015 in Alberta. I would point you to a more recent example in British Columbia, where Richmond-Stevenson and one of the seats in Verner both have independents running, so they split the vote. They got 2,000 and 4,000 votes, so the independent did, respectively, and those two seats are now being held as part of the 46-seat minority potential government in British Columbia. If those votes weren't split in those two seats, it's 46 NDP, 45 Conservative, [and] two Greens,” said Moe.
“If those two seats were not split, it would be 47 Conservative, 44 NDP and two Greens. So, if anyone thinks they're going to outsmart history when it comes to vote splitting, they didn't do it in Alberta, they didn't do it more recently in BC, they haven't done it in the UK, so I don't think we're going to outsmart anywhere else. Further to that, I would say the divisions that arrive between certain parties, the very foundation and formation of the Saskatchewan party was the opposite of that. It was four Liberals and four Conservatives coming together because they found that what they agreed on was about 85 per cent of what they were discussing.”
He also acknowledged that this has been a challenging election, with two Saskatchewan Party members being the subject of conflict of interest investigations and their Regina Pasqua candidate Muhammad Fiaz being captured in an audio recording early this year how the government handled the education issues in the province.
Conflict of Interest Commissioner Maurice Herauf found former Regina Northeast MLA Gary Grewal, who owned motels, profiteering from government contracts, while Saskatchewan Party Battlefords candidate Jeremy Cockrill is the subject of two conflict of interest investigations.
“We're having a challenging election, I would say, here in Saskatchewan. That being said, we have 61 of the finest candidates that I certainly have met. But we do have 61 dynamic candidates, not only running in Saskatoon but running across this province. I talked to Jim Lemaigre in the north, and he's putting it all out there in the constituency of Athabasca and putting forward his value proposition to be a representative for the people that live in the northwestern part of our province,” said Moe.
"But most certainly, as I said earlier, what we are focused on is forming a majority government so that we can put forward the plan that we're putting forward before the people of Saskatchewan, that plan for a strong, growing, vibrant economy, so that we can create that brighter future for everyone that lives here, and everyone that we know will have the opportunity to live here. That's our plan. That's our value proposition. We will aim and target to win that incumbent government by trying to win each and every one of the 61 seats that we have in the Saskatchewan.”
Moe said that challenging discussions also happen within the Saskatchewan Party Caucus, where disagreements arise, but they continue to work together.
“We have to bite our tongue and have some tough discussions from time to time in our caucuses or as a party because we don't agree on everything like we don't agree on everything in any community across this province, but we work together as a governing caucus, we work together as a collection of Saskatchewan Party candidates to come up with what is the best plan forward for the majority of Saskatchewan people,” said Moe.
“We always achieve more when we work together, respect one another, respect one another's differences without being disrespectful to one another, and that is the Saskatchewan party way. That's what we bring and would offer to bring to the province of Saskatchewan if they should choose us as their government. This party was born on unity and bringing people together, and it's time for us, not only in Saskatchewan, to come together, but across this nation.”
Moe believes the platform of the Saskatchewan Party of maintaining the province’s strong and vibrant economy and continuing to grow on that are enough reasons for them to remain in government while also again taking a swipe with the Saskatchewan NDP’s history and plan.
“Through that economy, we have attracted 250,000 people, not just to move here, but to live and stay here in the province. That wasn't always the opportunity. I would point back to the final years under the NDP government; when you went to Alberta, on the back of the “Welcome to Saskatchewan” sign, everyone in this room knows what was spray-painted on. It was, ‘Will the last one leaving please turn out the lights?’ That's the NDP government's record. Our children leaving this province because, yes, there was a job created, but it was unfortunately created in Alberta or another part of Canada, and our kids had to leave. A generation of kids left this province because there was an NDP government that did not believe in Saskatchewan people, did not believe that we could grow as a province and grow as communities,” said Moe.
“That has changed. You've seen, in Ken Cheveldayoff's constituency, half of that didn't even exist a decade ago because people are moving here and they're building houses in the city of Saskatoon. The same with our Fairview constituency in Saskatoon, and the same is true in each community across the province. That is ultimately the goal for us in the value proposition and the ballot question that we are putting in front of [the] Saskatchewan people. We want to continue with that economic growth and that economic opportunity: create those careers, create that opportunity, so that kids this age have the opportunity to stay right here in the Saskatchewan community, call it home, and raise their family here.”
