Finance minister Ralph Goodale cruised easily to victory in his Regina riding June 28, winning Wascana for the fourth consecutive term.
“You have delivered in this riding the largest federal Liberal victory … in Saskatchewan in more than 50 years,” he told his jubilant supporters.
With 178 of 180 polls reporting, Goodale had 20,254 votes and 57 percent of the popular vote. Conservative candidate Doug Cryer earned 8,566 votes for 24 percent. The NDP’s Erin Weir ran third with 5,653 votes.
The last time a Liberal candidate fared so well in Saskatchewan was when William Lyon Mackenzie King was prime minister.
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Goodale, who since 1993 has also held cabinet positions in agriculture, natural resources and public works, called his margin of victory satisfying. He noted the Liberals’ popular vote in Saskatchewan rose from 20 percent in 2000 to 30 percent, even though he remained the lone representative.
Gary Anderson came closest to joining him. He was in a tight race in Regina Lumsden Lake Centre, down 97 votes to Conservative Tom Lukiwski with two polls still not reporting. Results of that race were not available at press time.
Goodale said one of his priorities will be to build the federal party in Saskatchewan.
Another will be to work for farmers and Western Canada.
He said the Liberals have pledged to continue the fight to reopen the border to Canadian beef and to maintain maximum market access for all commodities.
“In the meantime we will need to find the financial resources to be as helpful to farmers as we possibly can be in the present circumstances,” he told reporters.
Goodale said there is too little domestic slaughter capacity and that has to change.
“We need to encourage those facilities to be built in Canada and particularly in Western Canada,” he said. “There’s much more to it than that but those are some of the things that we will want to work on to make sure that farmers are more satisfactorily dealt with.”
Goodale said the Liberal vote across Canada was “remarkably resilient.” In handing the Liberals a minority government, voters indicated they want a better performance from them, he said.
“We will read the message with care and we will respond constructively to what Canadians have said.”
