Saskatchewan’s New Democrats are licking their wounds this week after rural voters sent them a message they will not soon forget.
A win by the thinnest of margins has left the NDP with a minority government.
On election night in NDP headquarters in Saskatoon, premier Roy Romanow said forces beyond the provincial government’s control are at least partially to blame.
“They can blame the Americans, the Europeans, the multinational corporations. They can blame Ottawa, but excuse me, we just had an election this week and voters decided the only ones to blame were the (the New Democrats) … . They were out of touch with rural voters,” said John Courtney, a political scientist at the University of Saskatchewan.
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Shreesh Juyal, a political scientist at the University of Regina, said the party forgot its roots.
“(The NDP) was born as a rural, a farmers’ party. They forgot and they paid the price, just as Allan Blakeney did in earlier days.
“They even managed to alienate their other traditional supporters such as organized labor,” said Juyal.
Political scientists say it is not a left/right split in the voters that caused the minority government but a rejection of policies that may have been held by any party in power in a poor provincial economy.
Pat Atkinson, previous minister of education and MLA for Saskatoon Nutana, said the farm economic problems were out of reach for any provincial government.
“We did what we could and we have been told what we did was not enough, so we will have to think about where we failed.”
Romanow, in his election night speech, told rural voters their message was acknowledged. But he also passed some blame to Ottawa.
“I have a special message for our rural citizens. You have spoken clearly tonight about the worst year in rural Saskatchewan since the 1930s and I, we, have heard you,” he said.
Juyal said Romanow needs to move quickly. “It took two years for the Blakeney government to recover and figure out what happened to them. Mr. Romanow doesn’t have that kind of time.
“He must face rural issues, the party’s grassroots issues, much faster than that. He will need to change course of the party’s direction over a matter of weeks and months.”
