SALTCOATS, Sask. – Bob Bjornerud doesn’t display the confidence of a man who soundly thumped his challengers in the last provincial election.
He’s nervous about his chances in the Nov. 5 election and admits it.
The Melville-Saltcoats constituency has likely become the most watched rural riding in this campaign.
Two incumbents – Bjornerud for the Saskatchewan Party and Ron Osika for the New Democrats – are seeking the job of MLA, thanks to redrawn boundaries.
Bjornerud initially lost his party’s nomination to former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Grant Schmidt, but regained it after the party executive stepped in.
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Osika, elected as a Liberal in 1995 and 1999, decided to run for the NDP after sitting in cabinet as part of the coalition government.
Schmidt is running as an independent.
Part way through the campaign, Brian Tochor from Esterhazy entered the race for the Liberals.
“I think it’s going to be a very tight race,” Bjornerud said.
His campaign office is located in a former Saltcoats café. Bjornerud feels at home here. When he was a child his parents operated the café for a time and the family lived upstairs.
The former Tory was first elected as a Liberal in 1995 and has been credited with suggesting the concept of what became the Saskatchewan Party in 1997.
In 1999, he won 62 percent of the popular vote. That support is still evident in Saltcoats, where Bjornerud lawn signs prevail.
But as he looks at the constituency map now, he knows it won’t be that easy this time.
He expects Tochor will take some of his Esterhazy vote, and Schmidt will take some from Saskatchewan Party voters angry about the nomination controversy.
Schmidt, who represented the area from 1982 to 1991, said the race is between him and Bjornerud – the candidate favoured by what he calls the Saskatchewan Party junta.
He notes the Saskatchewan Party won every poll in Saltcoats in 1999, while it lost every poll in Melville.
“The NDP flat-lined at 26 percent and nobody believes they can knock off the Saskatchewan Party,” said the Melville lawyer during an interview in his campaign headquarters, a cavernous former bargain store. “Thousands of people see me as an alternative to keep them both in line.
“It’s a battle between the Saskatchewan Party and Grant Schmidt.”
Osika thinks differently. He knows Schmidt predicts Osika, a former RCMP officer who later worked for Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp., will finish last.
“I don’t know what he’s basing that on,” he said. “I’m going to win this riding.”
Osika said much of his past support came from areas that are no longer in the constituency, but he is pleased with his reception on the doorstep.
“I’m quite pumped,” he said.
Tochor figures he has as good a chance as any of the three better-known candidates.
“Quite honestly why I’m in it is because I think I have more to offer to the constituents than any of the aforementioned candidates,” he said. “I have boundless energy. I’m credible. I don’t have any baggage and I feel very capable and confident in my skills.”
Tochor, a cabinetmaker and owner of a care home, said the electorate in Melville-Saltcoats is informed and he predicts a good turnout on election day.
“They’re taking their duty as voters in a democracy very seriously,” he said.
