KINDERSLEY, Sask. – “Election, what election,” appears to be the feeling of residents of the rural riding of Kindersley, in west-central Saskatchewan.
“There is nothing to be mad about so why change,” is the way it is expressed by grain plant operator, Lyle Anderson, in the largest town in the riding. And his words seem echoed from the elevators, the oil and gas companies and main street business. If there is a battle in the riding, it is a quiet one.
The riding has taken on a new shape and 30 percent more voters than last election, but very little has changed in the individual demographics say the three candidates. The boundaries extend from the South Saskatchewan River north 160 kilometres to the edge of the town of Unity, and from the Alberta border to the Bear and Bad Hills 120 km to the east.
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“It’s farming, oil and gas and the small town, that’s what’s out here,” said Mel Karlson, NDP candidate in the now Tory riding. Karlson, a retired Sask Power superintendent, is running on the record of the NDP. He’s hoping to change voters that are happy to have Bill Boyd, the leader of the Progressive Conservative party, as their representative in Regina.
The rural economic landscape of the constituency tells the tale of the few issues that make the public look up from their daily toil. Smaller towns are losing jobs and services, which in Saskatchewan means hospitals. Two hospitals that came under the NDP axe are located in towns where community health care and medicare were born. The memories of those earlier battles run deep and that can’t help Karlson in Eston and Dodsland, the towns that are facing “eight-hour health care.”
Despite being one of the early homes of the infant CCF party the riding shares the border with PC Klein’s Alberta. The crops are always greener on the other side of the field and voters who regularly make the sales tax-free run west find themselves asking why they should pay more in Saskatchewan. Local merchants suffer for these Alberta journeys making the Liberal and Conservatives’ lower sales tax platforms an issue.
“The PST, of course, because of our proximity to Alberta, is a big concern,” said local candidate Boyd. As the Conservative Party leader he relies on a strong campaign team to aid him in the riding and says he has done “about as much work as we can, given the limitations of my schedule.”
Liberal candidate Delmar Price says, “it’s not easy to take on a leader.” Price thinks health care is a big issue for the constituency’s voters. Price, a farmer and businessman from Eatonia, is a founder of the Rural Health Coalition, which has been critical of the provincial government’s health reform.
Voter Anderson, who sees a large number of farmers every day, says the election is not a hot topic of discussion “like the gun debate.” His assessment is, “the crop went in the ground on time, people are optimistic and they seem split right down the middle on who to vote for.”
