REGINA – Saskatchewan‘s provincial election campaign has begun, with polling day on Oct. 28. Here’s a look at provincial governments over five decades:
New Democrats, 1971-78
The NDP and leader Allan Blakeney, a former cabinet minister under Tommy Douglas, defeated Ross Thatcher’s Liberals in 1971. Blakeney and the NDP were re-elected in 1975 and 1978.
Progressive Conservatives, 1982-86
Blakeney’s NDP was defeated by Grant Devine’s Progressive Conservatives in 1982. Devine won a second term in 1986 but the PCs went down to defeat at the hands of the NDP and leader Roy Romanow in 1991.
New Democrats, 1991-2007
Romanow, a former attorney general under Blakeney, was premier for three terms. He retired in 2000 and Lorne Calvert was named the new party leader and premier. Calvert and the NDP won the 2003 election but lost to Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party in 2007.
Saskatchewan Party, since 2007
The Saskatchewan Party, founded a decade earlier by a coalition of former provincial Tories and Liberals, formed government for the first time in 2007 and won again in 2011, 2016 and 2020. Wall, a former ministerial assistant in Devine’s government, was re-elected twice as premier. He retired in 2018 and his environment minister, Scott Moe, was voted by party members to replace him. Moe was at the helm for the win in the 2020 election, held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2024.
