MOOSE JAW — Five candidates are running to be the member of Parliament for the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan Constituency, including the incumbent, a two-time challenger and three newcomers.
The candidates include Britt Baumann with the New Democratic Party, Chey Craik with the People’s Party of Canada, Mike Gardiner with the Green Party of Canada, Tabitha Mukamusoni with the Liberal Party of Canada and incumbent Fraser Tolmie with the Conservative Party of Canada.
Britt Baumann
Baumann is a veteran who served as a finance clerk, while her husband also served for 45 years.
She understands that the increasing costs of housing, groceries, home heating, and daycare have become difficult for working people. She believes the government must implement policies to increase the availability of affordable housing and create programs to support working families.
Baumann has a PhD in public policy and an MA in sociology. She worked as a policy analyst and focused on policy solutions involving resource development and First Nations land management.
The NDP candidate is also passionate about increasing the availability of affordable housing, disability rights, and conserving Saskatchewan’s farmland and water.
Chey Craik
Craik — who ran unsuccessfully in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections — is a business owner, operator and consultant and understands the importance of communication and customer service.
His career spans nearly 20 years with one of Canada’s largest rail transportation companies, where he advanced from conductor to locomotive engineer to trainmaster, overseeing over 300 employees. This experience prepared him to own and operate a rapidly growing training service company.
With a strong passion for people and a commitment to fixing a broken system, Craik sees politics as a way to make a difference.
Having closely followed politics and parties’ platforms, Craik is confident in the People’s Party of Canada’s vision for the country. He believes it’s important to stand up for personal responsibility, individual freedom, fairness, and respect.
PPC Leader Max Bernier will be in Moose Jaw on Saturday, April 19 at the Western Development Museum from 2 to 4 p.m., while five Saskatchewan candidates will also join him.
Mike Gardiner
Gardiner — who ran unsuccessfully in the October 2024 provincial election — is passionate about environmental sustainability and conservation.
He has been in Moose Jaw for 18 years and lives with his spouse and two children, while he has been a social worker for more than a decade and is completing a degree in social work.
Gardiner supports Universal Basic Income (UBI), is dedicated to decolonization, supports reconciliation, wants more transparency and accountability in government, supports taxing the wealthiest 10 per cent of citizens and corporations, believes in equal rights, supports restoring natural grasslands and wetlands, and collaborating with other parties.
Tabitha Mukamusoni
Mukamusoni worked as a journalist in Burundi in East Africa but fled to Canada in 2016 after receiving death threats. She says her life has been marked by courage, resilience and a deep commitment to giving a voice to the voiceless.
She lived in Gravelbourg and became the director of the community’s French radio station and of the Association communautaire fransaskoise de Gravelbourg (ACFG). These efforts ensured the Francophone community had a platform to be heard.
Mukamusoni’s work with ACFG helped foster connections and support new immigrants to integrate and find services.
In this election, she is focused on creating jobs, supporting families and small businesses, building a prosperous future for all and working with Liberal Leader Mark Carney to strengthen the middle class, support rural development and foster a beneficial economy.
Fraser Tolmie
Tolmie served as a Moose Jaw city councillor from 2009 to 2012, as mayor from 2016 to 2021, and became MP of the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan Constituency in 2021, where he served as the deputy shadow minister for veterans’ affairs and sat on the House of Commons Veterans Affairs Committee.
He is passionate about aviation and has served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He also holds an honours degree in history.
Riding demographics and history
The Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan riding has 83,319 people, is 39,409 square kilometres in size, has an average age of 43, has an average income of $54,300, and has a voter turnout of roughly 69 per cent, according to Elections Canada.
Furthermore, most people in the riding — 77,940 constituents — speak English, while roughly 265 speak French and about 25 speak an Aboriginal language. Other languages spoken include German (760 people) and “other” with 2,285 people.
The constituency was created in 2012, legally defined in 2013 and came into effect in. Meanwhile, Elections Canada enlarged the riding’s boundaries in 2022, where it expanded further west and contracted slightly in the north.
Challenges affecting potash mining and agriculture, such as tariffs, are major issues in the riding. With Moose Jaw being home to 15 Wing Moose Jaw, issues affecting the military are also of heightened interest.
The federal election is on Monday, April 28.
With information from John Cairns.
