Rural-urban split in Sask. requires both parties to focus on outreach, experts say

Based on the first preliminary count, the Saskatchewan Party will form government through its strength of support in rural Saskatchewan.

The Sask. Party maintained its hold on 33 seats – with two races in Saskatoon too close to call Monday night.

With exception of the constituencies of Athabasca and Cumberland in the north, the incumbents swept clear through rural Saskatchewan and held onto seats in smaller urban centres like Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and Yorkton.

“We now have a legislature that is quite divided in terms of that rural, urban split,” said Tom McIntosh, professor of politics and international studies at the University of Regina.

"The irony in that, and the flip side of that, is the issues for rural Saskatchewan and urban Saskatchewan were the same."

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The NDP swept clean through Regina, totalling 12 seats, and nearly dominated Saskatoon, which holds 14 seats.

Despite the NDP nearly doubling its seat count in the legislature through its gains in the province’s two largest urban centres, the Saskatchewan Party formed a majority government by keeping its power in 29 rural constituencies, out of a possible 31.

Since the party’s first election in 1999, it has maintained a stronghold on rural Saskatchewan. According to McIntosh – this year’s election has continued the trend.

“The NDP has been for a while an urban based party and this [election] solidifies that. This definitely demonstrates they have a lot of work to do to rebuild the rural roots that the party had many years ago,” he explained.

“They haven’t had it now for a generation or two and that shows. Given the size of the caucus and the results, they’ve got a lot of enthusiasm. They have an opportunity now to go into rural Saskatchewan and really try to build some connections there.”

However, its not only the NDP that needs to focus on voter outreach.

“The same is true with the Saskatchewan Party. They are going to have to try to rebuild their relationship with urban voters that Brad Wall had done so successfully into that big 10 coalition,” he added.

Another reason the party has kept its support in rural support is because of the positive growth happening, according to incumbent for Melville-Saltcoats Warren Kaeding.

“One thing we're seeing in rural Saskatchewan is we have a very strong economy,” he said.

“Whether it's the increase in added value of resources that we're seeing in Yorkton here, the potash industry and how it's evolved and developed in the area. I think we're seeing that across the province the development of the resource sector which is very exciting for us as a province."

Despite where both parties found their support, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) agreed that in many ways, city issues are also rural issues.

“We know that no matter what size your urban [centre] is, you have some of those same concerns around water, wastewater, solid waste, community rinks, community pools, roads and streets,” SUMA President Randy Goulden explained.

“It's just in the scale and the size.”