SASKATOON — Mixed emotions are how April ChiefCalf described what she felt after being officially proclaimed the winner of the Saskatoon Westview constituency following the final count by Elections Saskatchewan on Saturday, Nov. 9.
ChiefCalf prevented David Buckingham from being re-elected to the Legislature, beating the incumbent by 74 votes, 3,576-3,502, in one of the hotly-contested constituencies in the last elections. She almost doubled her winning margin against the former Saskatchewan Party MLA after the Oct. 30 second preliminary count.
She worked for 19 years in La Ronge as part of the Northern Teacher Education Program before the Saskatchewan Party-led government defunded it in 2017. She and her husband moved to Saskatoon, where they worked in Indigenous teacher education programs at the University of Saskatchewan campus.
“It's slowly sinking in now. I still feel like there was more to come, but now I realize this is it. We've won, and it's a good feeling. There are parts of it that are just wonderful, just amazing,” ChiefCalf told SaskToday, adding that she is ready to take on the challenges of her new job.
“I love going to events and meeting people. I enjoyed canvassing and talking to people on the doorstep, learning more about their issues. It's going to be a learning curve. Any new job comes with some anxiety and learning new roles and responsibilities, but I look forward to it.”
She is the NDP’s 27th MLA, representing the Westview constituency that includes the neighbourhoods of Dundonald, Hampton, Westview and parts of Massey Place. She is one of the six NDP candidates who managed to flip a riding from the Saskatchewan Party.
The NDP won 13 of the 14 ridings in Saskatoon and, in the process, beat two former cabinet ministers, Bronwyn Eyre in Stonebridge (Minister of Justice and Attorney General) and Paul Merriman in Silverspring (Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety).
Darcy Washington and Hugh Gordon defeated Eyre and Merriman, respectively. Keith Jorgensen now represents Churchill-Wildwood, beating Lisa Lambert, while Kim Breckner and Brittney Singer won for Riversdale and Southeast, previously held by the Saskatchewan Party.
The NDP swept the 12 Regina ridings and won Athabasca (Leroy Laliberte) and Cumberland (Jordan McPhail), bringing their total to 27 MLAs, which ChiefCalf believes provides them more voices and gives them a more robust platform in the Legislature compared to having only 13 after the 2022 by-elections.
“There's strength in numbers, and just having a more considerable opposition gives us that platform, that space to bring these issues forward consistently,” said ChiefCalf, an educator and community organizer before entering politics.
“We have a solid team, a lot of expertise in the team, a lot of good life experience, and I think everybody's just really committed to representing the people in their ridings and making sure that we bring those issues into the ledge and that we're persistent in getting them addressed.”
ChiefCalf, despite being named by Opposition Leader Carla Beck as the Shadow Minister of Housing on Wednesday, Nov. 13, said she would continue doing her share in the NDP’s agenda of pushing the government to make life affordable to Saskatchewan residents, which was one of the major issues during the campaign, resolve the healthcare crisis and fix the education sector in the province.
“Several people I spoke with over the summer and the fall conveyed that they struggled to buy groceries and pay rent. People also talked about having difficulties accessing health care, finding a doctor, and having emergencies where they had to wait quite a while in an emergency room. Then there's a fair number of teachers and parents who live in the riding, and I think there are some real serious concerns about education in the constituency,” said ChiefCalf.
