Tank: Saskatoon votes for right federally, left provincially

Article content

Saskatoon should cheer for the Edmonton Oilers.

Article content

Article content

I propose this not because I happen to support last year’s Stanley Cup finalists, nor because the team employs the world’s best hockey player, Connor McDavid.

Nor because Edmonton happens to be the closest city to Saskatoon with an NHL team, a mere five-hour drive away.

The Oilers make sense for Saskatoon because their team colours, blue and orange, reflect the city’s seemingly contradictory political leanings. Voters decisively chose Conservative blue federally on Monday and NDP orange provincially last fall.

Article content

For the third straight election, Saskatoon elected the same three Conservatives to represent the city in Ottawa: Brad Redekopp (Saskatoon West), Corey Tochor (Saskatoon—University) and Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon South).

So Saskatoon remained solidly blue despite major gains by Liberal challengers, two of whom topped 40 per cent of the vote.

That seems to indicate that Saskatoon is a reliably right-leaning city. Most outsiders will adopt that impression.

But, just six months ago, Saskatoon elected left-leaning New Democrats in 13 of the city’s 14 seats to represent their interests in the provincial legislature.

That result, leaving just Saskatchewan Party MLA Ken Cheveldayoff standing to represent Saskatoon in Premier Scott Moe’s government, painted the city in NDP orange and suggests voters here clearly lean left.

And the NDP MLAs mostly won by considerable margins with just two close races featuring a margin of victory lower than five per cent. Saskatoon Riversdale, a traditional NDP seat won by Moe’s party in 2020, was reclaimed with a 25 per cent margin.

Article content

Article content

October’s provincial election, which the Saskatchewan Party won thanks to its strong support in smaller cities and rural areas, ended the party’s dominance in Saskatoon and Regina.

Regina went solidly NDP orange provincially with no close races. And Regina also elected Conservatives Monday despite even stronger showings by the suddenly resurgent Liberals.

So Regina residents should consider buying some blue and orange Oilers gear, too.

Yet these results raise some intriguing questions, such as why some voters backed the NDP provincially and the Conservatives federally. Fatigue with the Saskatchewan Party after nearly 18 years? Leader Carla Beck’s strategy to make the provincial NDP more moderate?

Moe endorsed Pierre Poilievre’s federal Conservatives — a rare move for a premier — further cementing the connection between the two parties despite different names. No other federal and provincial parties in Canada boast closer ties.

Three of the 14 Conservative candidates in Monday’s election, including Tochor, once served as Saskatchewan Party MLAs.

Article content

Beck, meanwhile, failed to endorse Jagmeet Singh’s NDP, or even acknowledge he was leading a party with the same name as the one she leads, as he guided the party to its worst result and lost his own seat.

In Saskatchewan, just 7.6 per cent of voters backed the NDP Monday, only slightly above the national share of 6.3 per cent. Saskatchewan reflected that disastrous national collapse.

Only Rachel Loewen Walker in Saskatoon West posted a respectable showing with 19 per cent of the vote — but that’s in a riding the NDP won in 2015. Saskatchewan’s 14 federal NDP candidates all finished third.

The other two NDP candidates in Saskatoon seats failed to hit 10 per cent, showing the Liberal success in attracting NDP voters, even in a city like Saskatoon where most NDP MLAs won by comfortable margins.

The combined total of the NDP and Liberal candidates in Saskatoon—University and Saskatoon South topped the vote count of the Conservatives, suggesting centre-left voters may see value in coalescing around a single candidate or party in future federal elections.

Article content

Saskatchewan’s largest city attracted all three federal party leaders for their only stops in the province during the campaign. Prime Minister Mark Carney visited twice, including on the campaign’s final day, in a failed attempt to translate surging Liberal support into seats.

Poilievre held a rally days before the vote, suggesting he sensed a threat in Saskatoon, unlike in Saskatchewan as a whole where his party garnered 65 per cent of the vote — the highest of any party in any province.

Carney’s two visits to Saskatoon failed to pay off for the Liberals, but he should feel comfortable visiting here since Canada’s Edmonton-raised prime minister cheers for the Oilers. Go orange and blue, Saskatoon!

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

@thinktanksk.bsky.social

Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here

Article content