Phil Tank: Sask. Party gets an unlikely ally in key Saskatoon race

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Naomi Hunter dismisses concerns about splitting the vote or playing spoiler.

Hunter is leading the Saskatchewan Green Party into her second election as leader. But the seat where she’s running will grab attention, especially from the NDP and those who want a change in government.

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Hunter is nominated to run in Saskatoon Riversdale, a traditional NDP stronghold that was won by the Saskatchewan Party for the first time in 2020.

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MLA Marv Friesen scored a narrow victory with 81 more votes than NDP candidate Ashlee Hicks. It marked the closest race in a provincial election since 2007.

Friesen admitted after his victory: “The party was absolutely very excited to win that riding.”

Saskatoon Riversdale was created in 1967 and won that year by future NDP premier Roy Romanow. It has been considered an NDP stronghold since.

Grant Devine’s 1982 Progressive Conservative landslide was punctuated by Romanow’s loss by 23 votes to PC candidate Jo-Ann Zazelenchuk, a political newcomer.

Romanow crushed Zazelenchuk in the 1986 rematch and represented the constituency for 30 years. When he retired in 2001, Lorne Calvert succeeded him as both premier and Saskatoon Riversdale MLA.

Despite the seat’s symbolism as an NDP fortress, the Saskatchewan Party has been gaining ground since Calvert left.

Former NDP MLA Danielle Chartier beat Friesen by only 259 votes in 2016, less than the combined 461 votes for the Green and Liberal candidates. So fringe parties can make a difference in Saskatoon Riversdale.

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In 2020, Green Party candidate Delanie Passer got 180 votes, more than the margin of victory. The NDP and others may well consider that splitting of the so-called progressive vote aided Friesen.

Only six seats, including Saskatoon Riversdale, were won four years ago by fewer votes than those cast for smaller parties. The Saskatchewan Party won five of the six and the Green Party played a role in all.

Notably, the Greens declined to field a candidate in Regina Walsh Acres, where the NDP had quashed the nomination of former cabinet minister Sandra Morin, who opted to run as an independent and siphoned enough votes for a Saskatchewan Party win.

So the Green Party can flex its muscles, even as an electoral pipsqueak. Despite fielding candidates in 60 races in 2020, the Greens finished fourth overall with just slightly more than two per cent of the total votes cast.

The Buffalo Party got more votes with 17 candidates and the PCs did nearly as well with 31 candidates. In terms of votes per candidate, the Greens placed fifth.

Undaunted, Hunter says she again plans for candidates in all 61 constituencies for this year’s election.

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Hunter, who ran in Regina Elphinstone-Centre in 2020, has since moved to Saskatoon after the pandemic disrupted her work providing therapy to seniors. She now operates an artist co-operative gallery in the Riversdale neighbourhood.

Hunter managed more than six per cent of the vote in 2020 — a high for Green candidates — but the seat was won easily by the NDP’s Meara Conway.

Yet Hunter stands to play a major role in Saskatoon Riversdale, “an area where I see a strong need for caring leadership and many people in need of poverty and housing solutions,” she said in an emailed reply.

The provincial government’s decision to establish a homeless shelter close to the Fairhaven neighbourhood within the constituency’s boundaries will resonate as a major issue. Hunter will battle Friesen and NDP candidate lawyer Kim Breckner for votes.

Hunter says those who rap the Green Party for vote splitting should consider that the NDP rejected an appeal for electoral reform when it was governing.

It’s unclear what threat the new Progress Party, borne out of the collapse of the provincial Liberals, might pose; Teunis Peters is its third interim leader in five months.

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The new right-wing Saskatchewan United Party failed to respond to a message asking if it intended to field a full slate of candidates. The PCs are also led by an interim leader, Rose Buscholl.

Regardless, in what is expected to be a closer election, smaller parties could make a big difference.

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

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

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