Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party jumped out to an early lead in Monday’s provincial general election.
Saskatchewan Party candidates were leading in multiple constituencies in the party’s traditional rural strongholds.
Carla Beck’s New Democrats were expected to rely on victories in the large urban centres of Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert.
The Saskatchewan Party is seeking a fifth-straight majority to add to its 17 years in office, and this was its second election under Moe.
Beck’s NDP was looking to take back government for the first time since 2007.
Beck cast her ballot Monday morning in her constituency of Regina Lakeview, along with her husband and three children. She wore a T-shirt that read “Prairie Living” and thanked election workers.
Moe and his wife cast their ballots last week at an advanced poll in his hometown of Shellbrook.
The voting caps a month-long campaign that focused on health care, affordability and crime.
Moe promised broad tax relief and continued withholding of federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa.
His platform would cost an additional $1.2 billion over four years. He said his tax reduction plan would save a family of four $3,400 over four years. It also includes tax credits for those looking to grow their families or put their children in sports and arts.
Moe promised deficits in the first two years, followed by a surplus in 2027.
Beck pledged to spend more to fix health care and education, pause the gas tax, and remove the provincial sales tax on children’s clothes and some grocery items.
She said her promises would cost an additional $3.5 billion over four years, with plans to cut what she calls Saskatchewan Party waste and to balance the budget by the end of her term.
Moe also promised that his first order of business if re-elected would be to ban “biological boys” from using school changing rooms with “biological girls.”
He said he made the promise after learning of a complaint at a southeast Saskatchewan school about two biological boys using a girls change room.
It was later revealed that a parent of the two children who were the subjects of the complaint is an NDP candidate. Moe said he didn’t know that when he made the promise.
Beck has said such a ban would make vulnerable kids more vulnerable. She also promised to repeal a Saskatchewan Party law that requires parental consent if children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school.
Political experts have said Moe is favoured to win the election, given his party’s strength in rural areas, but recent polls suggested a closer race.
To win a majority in the 61-seat legislature, the NDP would need to sweep the 28 seats in the three largest cities — Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert — and hope for help elsewhere.
At dissolution, the governing Saskatchewan Party had 42 seats, while the Opposition NDP had 14. There were four Independents and one seat was vacant.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2024.
