Sask. Party still in 'fairly comfortable position,' but 4 cabinet ministers leaving 'a blow': experts
CBC
The decision by four sitting cabinet ministers to announce they would not run in the upcoming provincial election is not a sign that the Saskatchewan Party is in any danger, according to some experts.
Daniel Westlake, an assistant professor of politics at the University of Saskatchewan, said the Saskatchewan Party remains in a "fairly comfortable position."
"This doesn't look to me like a case where MLA or cabinet ministers are leaving a party that's in trouble, and suggests to me that this may be a case where the individuals just saw there wasn't much more they could do in government and perhaps wanted to move on to other things," Westlake said.
Tom McIntosh, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of Regina, said in a separate interview the decision to announce all four cabinet ministers leaving on the same day was "striking."
He said they bring a lot of experience and they're likely influential voices in caucus.
"I think the fact that they've all chosen to leave is, in the first instance, a blow to the government at a point when, at least in urban Saskatchewan, it appears, if the polls are to be believed, that the government is at risk of losing a number of seats in the two larger cities," McIntosh said.
On Tuesday, Minister of Crown Investments Corp. Dustin Duncan (Weyburn-Big Muddy), Minister of Government Relations Don McMorris (Indian Head-Milestone), Minister of Advanced Education Gordon Wyant (Saskatoon Northwest) and deputy premier and Minister of Finance Donna Harpauer (Humboldt-Watrous) announced they would not be running again.
Each of them spoke with media Wednesday about their respective time in office.
McMorris and Harpauer were first elected in 1999. Harpauer said her decision to not seek re-election is about time.
"I actually considered that at the last election and chose to do four more years, but at the end of this term, it'll be 25 years. So that's considered a very long political life and I'm not getting younger," she said.
Duncan was first elected in 2006 at the age of 26.
Just like many of the other cabinet ministers, he said the decision was about time.
"You know I turned 45 this summer and I've been doing this for 40 per cent of my life. I've had the great privilege of sitting around that table for a third of my entire life. It's been a great privilege and a pleasure and an honour," he said.
Wyant confirmed he's heard the speculation about him potentially running for mayor of Saskatoon.
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