The Saskatchewan Party has been in government for the past 17 years. If they win their fifth straight election it will tie them for the second most election wins in a row in the province of Saskatchewan. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME file photo)

By CKOM

Provincial Politics

Sask. Party might see some shifts in votes for the 2024 election

Jul 1, 2024 | 9:45 AM

The Saskatchewan provincial election is just months away.

Daniel Westlake is an assistant professor of political studies at the University of Saskatchewan. He talked about whether or not there’s dwindling support for the Saskatchewan Party in the province.

“The Sask. Party’s still fairly comfortable, which is what you would expect a province that is a bit more conservative, and (a) resource-heavy province, and a more rural province,” Westlake said. “I still would expect, just based on the fundamentals, the Sask. Party (to) do a little bit worse than they’ve done in the past election. But the ability to win government (shouldn’t) be seriously threatened.”

Westlake said the party leaders matter, but they won’t be the deciding factor. He said just because a particular leader may be popular among people, it doesn’t always translate to votes.

“There’s a whole whack of factors that are gonna shape vote choice … There will be a group of people in Saskatchewan that are hardcore Sask. Party members that will never consider voting for anybody else, the same is true for the NDP. And then there are fundamentals. There are people that punish the incumbent when the economy is bad … I would think in both cases leaders matter, but they’re not the be-all and end-all,” said Westlake.

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Westlake noted there are two types of issues the parties will address in the upcoming election.

“There are the issues that people notice in their everyday lives. These are things like cost of living, housing crisis, inflation … People notice if their incomes are going down or unemployment goes up,” said Westlake. “There are other issues that people don’t see in their everyday lives. Those are the kinds of issues that will depend more on whether parties decide to place them on the agenda.”

The Saskatchewan Party is looking for its fifth straight election win, which would tie the Co-operative Commonwealth (1944-1964) for the second-most election wins in a row in the province of Saskatchewan.

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