Sask Party - Kevin Phillips
Kevin Phillips is a near life long resident of Melfort. He has worked in business and advertising and was a partner with the Melfort Journal for 25 years sitting on the Canadian Community Newspaper Association board as well as a partner with an automotive dealership.
In addition, Phillips served as the Mayor of Melfort for five years before being elected as the MLA of the Melfort riding in the 2011 provincial election.
Since his election Phillips notes a number of infrastructural upgrades that have taken place. Recently both LeRoy and Quill Lake have received infrastructure funding, the school of St. Brieux is receiving a major innovation into their school as well, Melfort will be opening a domestic violence shelter later this year, says Phillips. He noted that the domestic violence shelter is the first one built in Saskatchewan since 1989.
In addition, Phillips also points to the roadways as further proof of infrastructural upgrades in the Melfort Constituency.
A number of roadways have been redone in the past couple of years including Highway 5, Highway 6, Highway 41, and Highway 368 has been half to two thirds redone, says Phillips.
“We still have some work left to do but the highways in this constituency are so much better than they have been in the past.”
Phillips also said that in addition to the wealth of infrastructural upgrades that have been brought to the constituency he is also a good candidate because he is empathetic towards his constituents.
“I feel that I understand the problems that people have when they walk into my office and I work hard with them to try to solve those problems or at least in a lot of cases help them to understand why things are the way they are.”
NDP Saskatchewan - Linsey Thornton
Linsey Thornton is the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party candidate for the Melfort Constituency.
He attended school in Kandahar and Wynyard before going to the University of Saskatchewan where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management. After that, Thornton attended the University of Regina to complete his Bachelor of Education in business and math.
Since then, Thornton has taken on the role of serving the teachers of the northeast on the teachers association executive committee and has served as a Saskatchewan Teachers’ Association councilor for the past six years.
Thornton is married and has two daughters and a son.
As both a father and a schoolteacher, Thornton says he has a strong vision for the future of Saskatchewan.
“I often refer to the students in my classroom as my kids and I want the same things for them as I do for my own children and that would be a great education and lots of opportunities after graduation.”
Party leader, Cam Broten, shares the same visions, says Thornton.
“He has a strong vision for the future that will strengthen and diversify the economy and ensure that our prosperity delivers real benefits to all Saskatchewan families.”
Thornton says, after seeing a decade of great growth, the province is beginning to turn a massive debt with no rainy day fund, with the province facing “draconian cuts.”
There have already been cuts to education and senior’s care, says Thornton.
“These cuts happened in the good times. Can we really trust the Sask Party now that times are tight?”
Thornton believes that it is time to cut the Saskatchewan Parties’ wasteful spending on out of province consultants as well as their lean experiment to instead fix the services that families rely on everyday and make their lives more affordable.
Thornton says he will be visible at community events, hockey rinks, and basketball games so that he can listen and focus on what matters to the residents of the Melfort constituency.
“As your next MLA I will work hard for your priorities and your family.”
Saskatchewan Liberals - Bruce Ber
Bruce Ber is the Liberal candidate in the Melfort constituency.
He was born in Whitewood, SK before moving to Sasktoon.
Ber has a background in both farming and the oil industry. As part of his job in the oilfields Ber ended up moving to Brooks, AB where he worked for a few years before he moved back to Saskatoon to help run the family convenience store.
Ber says he got into politics because he is not happy with the way the province is currently trending.
He feels very strongly about fiscal responsibility, health care, social programs and crown corporations, which he feels are currently not being taken seriously enough.
As part of helping his parents run the convenience store he has been quite active in liquor laws and has worked closely with the local MLA’s over the previous 15 years getting rules changed.
He believes he would make a great MLA for the Melfort constituency because he is very honest.
“I’m not in your face honest, I’m just honest…I don’t like lying to people, when I say something I try to do it.”
He aims to help protect the farmer when it comes to pipelines and oil wells.
Ber also notes that grain terminals are moving further from local farmers, which is forcing them to transport their grain further.
“And the roads just aren’t there to transport it, not only the rural roads but also the highway roads. You have all these semis running down highway running down highway, which you didn’t have 15 years ago.”
Ber believes that there should be a greaten emphasis on economic security. He believes the current government is not doing a good enough job of that, noting the large deficit they are running up.
Ber hopes he is elected the next Melfort MLA because he believes he can make a difference.
“I believe in the community I believe in Saskatchewan and I want it to succeed.”
Green Party of Saskatchewan, Tanner Wallace
Tanner Wallace is running for the Green Party in the Melfort Constituency.
He is 19 years old and fresh out of high school.
He is from Manitoba and has been living in Regina for the previous two years.
Wallace grew up in the home of a single parent and has spent the majority of his life struggling to make ends meet.
He is visually impaired and as a result has had a difficult time trying to find full time work.
He is currently working on becoming a fully licensed cook.
Wallace decided to get into provincial politics because he has struggled most of his life financially and believes that the Green Party’s platform of eliminating poverty through a guaranteed income is an especially important issue that interests him.
Wallace was unavailable for comment regarding his candidacy for the Melfort constituency but Green Party Leader, Victor Lau, was pleased to speak on his behalf.
Lau believes Wallace would make a great choice as the next MLA of Melfort because he can relate to a number of lower class citizens, as he has struggled greatly in his life.
“Tanner Wallace will make a great local MLA because he has suffered, he knows what it means to be poor, he knows what it means to be visually impaired, he cares about people,” says Lau.
In addition, Lau feels that platform for which he is running is very important for the citizens of Saskatchewan, especially right now given the downturn in both oil and potash.
The Green party hopes to expand the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation to include livestock, all specialty crops, farm machinery and other forms of insurance required for farming.
They would like to replace crown corporations with crown co-operatives that would be owned by the government but directed by a new co-op membership.
Changing the electoral system from its current format to one that sees a proportional representation is also an important aspect of their platform.
