The writ has been dropped and the campaign is underway for the Saskatchewan provincial election.
The campaign officially began Tuesday, although many of the candidates and parties had already began campaigning well in advance of the election call.
As of the Mercury’s press time Tuesday, four candidates had been announced in the Estevan constituency: incumbent MLA Lori Carr of the Saskatchewan Party, Seth Lendrum of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Linda Sopp of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party and Phil Zajac of the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan. Carr, Sopp and Zajac reside in Estevan; Lendrum, the most recent candidate to join the field, resides in Weyburn but has lived in Estevan previously.
The Green Party and the Liberal Party had yet to announce candidates.
The provincial election will occur Oct. 26.
Carr was elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature for the first time in 2016, and since then has had multiple cabinet positions. She has been meeting with business leaders and reaching out to people prior to the election.
Her campaign office will be located in the 1200-block of Fourth Street.
She noted the past four years have seen the Estevan area receive $8 million for coal transition funding. Numerous highway projects include twinning of Highway 39 east of the city, installing passing lanes between Estevan and Weyburn and resurfacing several highways. An addictions treatment centre is returning to St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Carr said she would like to finalize what power production will look like in Estevan, so the community can plan for the future with certainty.
“Of course, my first choice would be for the continuation of and additional units for carbon capture and sequestration, but I’m also very excited by the possibility for SMRs, small modular reactors, for the area,” said Carr.
She believes the workforce in the area, well-versed in power production, could operate those SMRs.
She also said she would pressure the government for a new regional nursing home in Estevan, and articulate the ideas from the new Estevan Regional Nursing Home committee.
Carr will be out door-knocking during the campaign. She admits it was a source of concern in the midst of a pandemic, but protocols have been put in place to ensure there is no physical contact.
“People are really receptive and aren’t shoving you away from the door when you come visit,” Carr said.
Lendrum is running for elected office for the first time with the NDP, but he has always taken an interest in politics.
“My family has been part of the NDP since before I was born,” said Lendrum.
He said he decided to seek the nomination for the NDP because of that interest in politics. He thought that if he wanted to get more into politics, then being a candidate would be the way to do it.
The time he spent working in Estevan this summer gave him an indication of the issues facing the riding, including the job losses associated with the retirement of Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam.
“I believe the infrastructure’s there, and when it closes, it can change to something else,” said Lendrum.
He’s also concerned about the job losses that occurred at the Westmorenad Mining LLC’s Estevan mine earlier this year.
Small modular nuclear reactors would be an option for Estevan in the future.
“Since we are the Energy City, it would be a good chance to start moving towards nuclear, reusable energy. We do have the infrastructure there, so why not use it?”
The small, modular reactors are much safer than conventional nuclear power as well.
If he wins the election, Lendrum said he would relocate to the Estevan constituency. It will take a lot of hard work to win the riding, and Lendrum said he’s not going to be a phantom candidate.
Lendrum said he plans to create a YouTube channel in which he will post updates on the provincial election and the party, and he’s looking forward to the debates that will occur in the next few weeks.
Sopp became the PC candidate early in the summer. Since that time, she said she has received favourable support from those she has talked to.
She wants to see the energy sector running the way it should be, because it has been struggling in recent years.
And her first job was working at the Derrick Motor Inn, so she is sad to know the venerable hotel will soon be torn down.
“That’s the second hotel in less than a year that’s been torn down,” she said. “It’s sad seeing all the businesses with the equipment in their yards, or sold off, or companies selling off their equipment because they can’t afford it.”
She said the Progressive Conservatives would also aim to end the New West Trade Partnership Agreement with the other Western Canadian provinces. The PCs claim that has made it easier for companies to bring in non-Saskatchewan workers for projects.
The provincial sales tax should also be repealed on used vehicles, and she would like to see more Saskatchewan-driven referendums.
Sopp said she is looking for a few volunteers to help her with campaign tasks like door-knocking. She is also looking forward to the debates, an experience that she believes will be “quite interesting.”
Zajac joined the field for the Buffalo Party in September. He attended an all-candidates meeting for the new party on Saturday, when they discussed platform ideas for the election and how they can make life better for the people of the province over the next four years.
Zajac noted that the party would retrofit Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam with carbon capture technology, and invest further into carbon capture in the Estevan area.
The party is also continuing to voice its opposition to the federal carbon tax, and they won’t charge income tax to residents of Saskatchewan who are at least 70 years of age, even if they continue to work.
“It puts money back in every senior citizen’s pocket. These are the people who have worked to build this province and build this country, and as an industrialized, capitalist country, it’s embarrassing the money that our seniors have to live on,” he said.
Zajac described the Buffalo Party as the only one that’s pro-coal and pro-natural resources.
He said he is looking forward to the campaign and the debates. A lot of the issues being raised are those he was discussing federally when he ran for the People’s Party of Canada last year.
“These are things that I believe in, and I care about these people that work at the power plants and work at the mine. They’ve been here for a long time.”
