The recent by-election results leaves one to wonder. Brad Wall is a popular Premier and his government has performed well. Our economy is second to none and there were no substantive reasons for voters to choose the NDP over the SaskParty. So why did they?
To begin with Brad Wall and the SaskParty believed they would lose and they were right. There was no all out effort, on the tails of Brad Wall’s popularity, to win. Granted, these two constituencies have historically voted NDP, but I believe they could have been won. The NDP did not win by a significant margin. A stronger campaign by the entire SaskParty machine led by Brad Wall may have made a difference.
So where does this leave the SaskParty? Well, in some trouble because Dwain Lingenfelter will give them their strongest opposition since they formed government. I have no idea why voters would support the NDP given the record of the SaskParty, but they did. Further, I have no idea why Saskatchewan voters would return the NDP to power, but they might. The SaskParty needs to reach out to new voters and known supporters and begin to build new dynamic urban policies that will attract urban voters. Failure to do so will be hazardous at best.
