Nial Kuyek is determined to regain Regina-Qu’Appelle for the NDP.
However, he’ll have to defeat House of Commons speaker Andrew Scheer to do it.
Scheer won the riding for the Conservatives in 2004, after 25 years of NDP representation, and is determined to retain the seat.
He took 53 percent of the vote in 2011, followed by the NDP at 38 percent, the Liberals at 4.7 percent and the Green party at three percent. There was also an independent candidate.
Della Anaquod is running for the Liberals this time and Greg Chatterson is the Green party candidate.
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Midway through the campaign, projections show Scheer at 46 percent, Kuyek at 35 percent, Anaquod at 11 percent and Chatterson at seven.
Kuyek said voters on doorsteps are telling him they’re ready for change.
He believes his roots in the riding — he was raised on a farm at Bankend and still owns farmland there — and 26 years working with agricultural organizations should boost the party’s rural vote.
The riding is about 50 percent city voters, 40 percent towns, villages and farms and 10 percent First Nations.
“Unlike other NDP candidates, I kind of welcome a split seat,” he said of the redrawn boundaries that resulted in more urban-only seats.
He spent 13 years at Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, three years with the Saskatchewan Bison Association and five years as general manager of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“I have a network of contacts throughout the riding that we’re pursuing,” Kuyek said. “I think we’re going to reduce his rural majority.”
He said Scheer is an Ottawa resident who moved to Sask-atchewan to find a safe seat and has been more intent on building his career there than representing the constituency.
However, Scheer said he has done that job while maintaining the non-partisan role of speaker. He cited his work with the Indian Head community when the former Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Shelterbelt Centre closed.
“I worked very hard with the local community to make sure that there was enough time to transition to a private sector option,” he said.
Scheer said it is challenging to go from being active in caucus policy development to biting his tongue as speaker.
As well, he is finding this campaign different as he re-engages on more partisan issues.
“I think people respect the role and they appreciate that I am the first speaker from Saskatchewan,” he said.
He said farmers are concerned about NDP promises to bring back some form of gun registry, and they want better grain transportation service off the main railway lines.
Kuyek said an NDP government would initiate a rail costing review.
