The Saskatchewan NDP is looking to rebuild in rural constituencies, and last week its new leader named himself the party’s agriculture critic as part of that process.
Dwain Lingenfelter is the only active farmer in caucus. He has a grain farm near Regina, an organic grain farm at Frontier, Sask., and his family’s mixed operation at Shaunavon, Sask.
“Probably it’s important that the leader at this time – trying to and making inroads in rural Saskatchewan – that I wanted to have that kind of profile,” he said.
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Former agriculture minister Darrel Cunningham said the NDP really hasn’t won rural Saskatchewan since 1978.
“We’ve got some fundamental problems,” he said at the recent leadership convention.
“When we won in 1991, that was mostly a protest vote. We promptly lost it all.”
Cunningham said the NDP is undoubtedly viewed as a city party, its rural roots notwithstanding, although it has a reasonable presence in small urban centres that are part of rural constituencies.
Its philosophy on issues such as gay marriage and aboriginal self-government are off side with the conservative views of the majority of rural people, he said.
On the other hand, he believes the party is viewed as fiscally prudent and capable.
Cunningham said the smaller things that cost rural votes, such as a power pole erected in the wrong place, can add up.
“(Winning) the pure rurals are a few years away,” he said.
