Beck passes first big test as Sask. NDP leader with Saskatoon Meewasin win

Saskatchewan political analysts say Nathaniel Teed's byelection victory in Saskatoon Meewasin was a test passed for new provincial NDP Leader Carla Beck.

Teed received 57 per cent of the vote, a comfortable margin over his nearest challenger Kim Groff of the Saskatchewan Party, who received 37 per cent.

The result leaves the Saskatchewan NDP where it was before former Leader Ryan Meili resigned, with 12 seats in a 61-seat assembly.

"This byelection is important, but we are going to continue to do the hard work that we need to do to keep connecting, keep building with people right across this province and keep building toward 2024," said NDP Leader Carla Beck Monday night.

Ryan Meili announced he was stepping down as Saskatchewan NDP leader in February, three days after the party lost its seat in the Athabasca byelection.

Stephen Kenny is a professor emeritus at Campion College in Regina. He said the NDP was facing more pressure to win heading into this week's vote.

"They couldn't afford to lose Saskatoon Meewasin. They've held it, and that means there is a certain momentum developing with the Saskatchewan New Democrats, and the contrary would have been really disastrous for them."

Kenny said that while issues like the cost-of-living, education and health care may have resonated with voters, image may have also played a role in the outcome.

"There are a number of MLAs in the Saskatchewan Party that have been elected four and five times since 2007. So the reality is you have a team on the Saskatchewan Party side which is older and contrasts quite dramatically with the youth in the NDP caucus," Kenny said.

"I kind of thought if Kim Groff had been elected, there would have been another grandpa to join several other grandpas on the back benches in the legislature in Regina."

Elections Saskatchewan will still count additional ballots that were mailed in, but Monday's preliminary results indicate Teed received 2,624 votes to Groff's 1,712.

Teed got 99 fewer votes than Meili received in his 2017 byelection, but the margin of victory was greater.

"The NDP got their vote out. They almost matched Meili's vote from his byelection. And what seems to have fallen down is the Sask. Party didn't get their vote out," said Tom McIntosh, professor of politics and international studies at the University of Regina.

"This was the first test for Carla Beck as leader and she passed it."