VANCOUVER – Nettie Wiebe has achieved much in her 62 years: the first female president of the NFU, author, candidate for the leadership of the Saskatchewan NDP party, international speaker, organic farmer and ethics professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
But one prize has eluded the married mother of four: getting elected to the House of Commons.
Her 14,652 to 14,114 loss to Conservative Kelly Block in May in the Saskatoon- Rosetown-Biggar riding was her fourth attempt to become an MP.
It was even closer in 2008, when Block defeated Wiebe by 253 votes.
Read Also
Saskatchewan dairy farm breeds international champion
A Saskatchewan bred cow made history at the 2025 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, when she was named grand champion in the five-year-old Holstein class.
“I was very disappointed,” Wiebe said of her most recent defeat.
The federal government is an important place, where a clear, progressive voice should represent Saskatchewan, she said June 17 in an interview during the NDP’s national convention in Vancouver.
“It would have been an important voice,” she said.
“I would have liked to be that voice. But I’m also a farmer on the Prairies. You can do everything right – plant good seeds, have a good year – and you can get a hailstorm at the end. Does that prevent you from going out again? There’s always another spring.”
Wiebe, who has farmed with husband Jim Robbins for 30 years in Laura, not far from Saskatoon, said the rural vote in her riding was strongly Conservative.
So too were some urban voters, who in the past would have supported the NDP.
This time around, Wiebe said people with jobs were scared into voting for the Conservatives. The message was that the fragile economic recovery could be derailed if the Conservatives didn’t hold power.
However, she said that false fear was bogus, especially in Saskatchewan because the economy has been doing relatively well compared to other regions in Canada.
With a campaign run by young, energetic supporters, Wiebe said her message was about on-the-ground, practical matters rather than macroeconomic issues that held no relevance to the voters.
“Our own message was one of social justice, inclusiveness, housing, health care, a good food system,” said Wiebe.
Her rural-urban riding contains some of Saskatoon’s poorest neighbourhoods and a sizeable aboriginal population.
Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, along with Regina-Qu’Appelle and Palliser, were three Saskatchewan ridings that the NDP hoped to win.
Wiebe blamed the party’s failure to win seats in Saskatchewan on skewed riding boundaries.
The NDP received 32 percent of the popular vote in the province but no seats, while it received 33 percent of the vote in British Columbia and claimed 12 seats. In Quebec, with only 43 percent of the popular vote, the NDP captured 58 of the province’s 75 seats in the first-past-the-post system.
However, Wiebe remains optimistic, even after three failed attempts in Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar and a previous run in another federal riding.
“I have faith in people,” said the holder of a PhD in philosophy.
However, she said her mood changes to pessimism when a “reality check” reminds her that Canadians will be living under prime minister Stephen Harper’s directives for the next four years.
