Questions surround future by-election for Saskatoon Meeswasin
The seat currently held by Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili will be up for grabs within six months of his resignation.
Ryan Meili’s recent announcement that he is leaving politics hasn’t given Premier Scott Moe much time to think about a by-election date.
“I haven’t had a lot of time to think about when the appropriate time for that by-election would be,” he explained. “Once we know we certainly will announce it.”
Meili will leave office on July 1st, just a few days after his successor as party leader is chosen. Two people are currently in the running for the position, Regina Lakeview MLA Carla Beck and Saskatoon lawyer Kaitlyn Harvey.
Harvey does not hold a seat in the legislature and could seek to run in Meili’s Saskatoon Meewasin constituency regardless of whether or not she wins the leadership. That by-election likely won’t happen until the fall.
Meewasin was a very close race in 2020. The NDP narrowly won the constituency with 51 per cent of the vote.
The Sask. Party came in second with 46 per cent of the vote with the Green Party distantly following with 3 per cent.
In addition to the Green Party, there could be a new political movement in the race, the Saskatchewan United Party.
Independent MLA Nadine Wilson has attended some Saskatchewan United meetings but hasn’t indicated whether she would be willing to affiliate with them.
“Well I take each day as it comes,” said Wilson. “So I can’t answer that right now.”
The premier believes a second by-election is warranted.
“I’ve been quite clear with respect to Nadine Wilson in Saskatchewan Rivers. She wasn’t elected as an independent. She was elected as a Saskatchewan Party candidate,” he said. “If she’s so confident that she has the support that she feels she has in her constituency, she should put her name on a ballot.”
Wilson is entitled to serve her four year term without facing a by-election although the premier has said he is willing to hold a vote in her Saskatchewan Rivers constituency at the same time as Saskatoon Meewasin.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
U.S. Capitol riot: More people turn up with evidence against Donald Trump
More witnesses are coming forward with new details on the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot following former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's devastating testimony last week against former U.S. President Donald Trump, says a member of a U.S. House committee investigating the insurrection.

Dog left with lost baggage at Toronto Pearson Airport for about 21 hours
A Toronto woman says a dog she rescued from the Dominican Republic has been traumatized after being left in a corner of Toronto Pearson International Airport with baggage for about 21 hours.
Chinese-Canadian tycoon due to stand trial in China, embassy says
Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was due to go on trial in China on Monday, the Canadian embassy in Beijing said.
'Hell on earth': Ukrainian soldiers describe life on eastern front
Torched forests and cities burned to the ground. Colleagues with severed limbs. Bombardments so relentless the only option is to lie in a trench, wait and pray. Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front lines in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russia is waging a fierce offensive, describe life during what has turned into a gruelling war of attrition as apocalyptic.
Video shows police in Ohio kill Black man in hail of gunfire
A Black man was unarmed when Akron police chased him on foot and killed him in a hail of gunfire, but officers believed he had shot at them earlier from a vehicle and feared he was preparing to fire again, authorities said Sunday at a news conference.
Poorest Canadians nearly 4 times more likely to die from opioids than richest: study
A new study looking at opioid deaths across Canada over 17 years has found that low-income Canadians are almost four times more likely to die from opioids than high-income Canadians.
Shooting at Williams Lake, B.C. stampede injures 2, forces evacuation
Two people are injured and a third is in custody after what RCMP describe as a 'public shooting' at a rodeo in B.C. Sunday.
After a metre of rain, 32,000 around Sydney, Australia, may need to flee
More than 30,000 residents of Sydney and its surrounds were told to evacuate or prepare to abandon their homes Monday as Australia's largest city faces its fourth, and possibly worst, round of flooding in less than a year and a half.
Pope Francis denies he's planning to resign soon
Pope Francis has dismissed reports that he plans to resign in the near future, saying he is on track to visit Canada this month and hopes to be able to go to Moscow and Kyiv as soon as possible after that.