Northern riding goes for NDP in provincial election, Sask Party clings to power

It will be more of the same for northeast Saskatchewan following Monday’s provincial election - the Saskatchewan Party will form government once again and an NDP candidate will represent the region in legislature.

The Sask Party won their fifth straight majority government and the NDP, in their first election after the retirement of Doyle Vermette, re-took the Cumberland riding once again. Candidate Jordan McPhail won the riding, defeating three other candidates and going to Regina to represent the region for the first time.

At 1:30 a.m.. local time with all 37 polls reporting across the riding, McPhail led the way with 2,230 votes, more than half of all votes cast. Gregory Seib, the Saskatchewan Party candidate, finished second with 1,575 ballots. Green Party candidate Siwichis Bird-Paddy got 164 votes, while independent candidate Nasser Dean Chalifoux finished last with 49 votes.

Seib led the way early in the night after the first polls reported results, but McPhail picked up the lead and ran away with the victory over time. The results, by vote percentage, show a mild drop from the 2020 provincial election for the NDP and a modest climb for both the Sask Party and the Greens.

It’s McPhail’s first-ever provincial election win - the former La Ronge town councillor was nominated by the NDP last year after the announcement that long-time MLA Vermette would not run for reelection.

McPhail’s win continues a decades-long streak of wins in the region for the Saskatchewan NDP. The riding has voted in either an NDP or a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF, the predecessor of the NDP) MLA in every election since 1952 and has never voted in a candidate who didn’t run for either the NDP, the CCF or the former Saskatchewan Liberal Party.

Provincial results

After midnight local time, the result was confirmed - another majority government for the Sask Party, their fifth in a row.

As of 1:30 a.m. Flin Flon time, the electoral map showed 35 Sask Party seats and 26 NDP seats, a net change of 13 more seats for the NDP and 13 fewer for the Sask Party. The NDP won both northern Saskatchewan seats, winning back the Athabasca riding in northwest Saskatchewan which the Sask Party won in a 2021 byelection. NDP candidates also defeated five incumbent Sask Party cabinet ministers.

The final count of seats had not yet been decided as of press time, with insufficient vote counts to confirm winners in seven seats. Final results may differ from the 35-26 count reported as of press time, as further counts are made and mail-in ballots are processed.

The electoral map of Saskatchewan shows not only a north/south divide, but a stark urban/rural divide. While the NDP picked up the two northern seats, swept Regina and won most of the seats in Saskatoon, the rest of the province almost unanimously elected Sask Party MLAs, including rural ridings and cities like Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton and others.

Saskatchewan premier-elect Scott Moe handily won his riding of Rosthern-Shellbrook and celebrated the win at a campaign event in his hometown of Shellbrook, thanking voters for entrusting the party to another term of up to four years.

“Thank you once again to Saskatchewan for placing your trust in our party, the Saskatchewan Party,” said Moe.

“We knew when we started this campaign that it was going to be a challenging campaign. Recent history has not been kind to incumbent majority governing parties, in this nation or around the world. We saw what had happened to British Columbia, New Brunwsick and Manitoba a little while ago. We also believed that we had a message and we had a record that we could be proud of.”

Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck also won her seat and officially conceded the election shortly after 1 a.m. local time in a speech at the party’s headquarters in Regina. Some polls released in the days before the election showed the NDP might eke out a narrow win, but voters said otherwise - though the party made substantial gains.

“When we started this campaign, many people didn’t give us much of a chance - but we believed. Because of the hard work and determination of everyone in this room and across the province, we gave people a reason to hope again. That’s not nothing,” she said.

“We might not have crossed the finish line first tonight, but we have changed the landscape in this province.”