2024 Saskatchewan general election
The 2024 Saskatchewan general election was held on October 28, 2024, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.
The incumbent Saskatchewan Party government, led by Premier Scott Moe since 2018, sought re-election to a fifth consecutive term. The Saskatchewan Party's primary opponent, the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party led by Carla Beck, sought to lead the NDP to its first government since 2007. This was the first general election to feature the Saskatchewan United Party.
The Saskatchewan Party won enough seats to form its fifth consecutive majority government, claiming the majority of rural ridings. Its majority was reduced from eleven seats to three by a resurgent NDP—which achieved its best electoral performance since 2007 by taking every seat in Regina and all but one in Saskatoon. The SUP lost its only seat, which had been held by party founder Nadine Wilson. The results underscored the urban–rural divide between the two parties' constituencies.
Background
Since 2010, the Legislative Assembly has had a fixed four-year term. According to the 2019 amendment to the Legislative Assembly Act, 2007, "the first general election after the coming into force of this subsection must be held on Monday, October 26, 2020". Subsequent elections, must occur "on the last Monday of October in the fourth calendar year after the last general election". However, the act also provides that if the election period would overlap with a federal election period, the provincial election is to be postponed until the first Monday of the following April; in this case: April 7, 2025. The fixed election law does not infringe on the Lieutenant Governor's right to dissolve the Legislative Assembly at an earlier date on the Premier's advice.Legislative summary
Summary of the 29th Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Party
!rowspan="2"|Leader
!colspan="2"|Seats
!2020
!At dissolution
List of registered provincial political parties in Saskatchewan
Redistricting
The Saskatchewan Provincial Boundaries Commission drew a new map for Saskatchewan, as required by the Constituency Boundaries Act, 1993, which was subsequently ratified by the Saskatchewan Legislature. The Legislative Assembly continued to consist of 61 members.The following changes took effect:
Campaign
Health care, education, and the economy have been considered to be among the top issues heading into the election, with the incumbent Saskatchewan Party and Saskatchewan NDP focusing primarily on these issues.The province's health care system has been affected by staffing shortages, especially in rural areas of the province, which CUPE credited primarily to the Saskatchewan Health Authority's reliance on part-time workers as opposed to full-time positions. This has led to significant increases in vacancies and service disruptions since 2019. In early-October 2024, the emergency room of Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital operated at 350% capacity after other nearby facilities were unable to take patients in, causing it to run out of beds, stretchers, and oxygen. The Saskatchewan Party touted its effort to recruit nursing graduates, and internationally trained nurses from countries such as the Philippines. It also stated that it would offer at-home screening kits for HPV, and a refundable tax credit of up to $10,000 for fertility treatment. Carla Beck stated that the NDP would invest $1.1 billion into critical front line services over the next four years, and focus on improving working conditions to achieve employee retention. Beck criticized Scott Moe during the leaders' debate for not making any specific funding commitments for health care in his party's platform.
The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation has been in a labour dispute with the provincial government since May 2023, citing a lack of action on issues such as classroom size and complexity. After rotating strikes since January 2024, the STF enacted an indefinite work-to-rule beginning in April 2024. The Saskatchewan Party and NDP both pledged to place increased funding into education, with the Sask Party planning to spend $156 million on infrastructure and $336 million on classroom sizes and complexity, and the NDP planning to increase the education budget by $2 billion over four years to fund classroom size and complexity, infrastructure, and special needs programs. Beck also promised a new high school in White City, and the implementation of a healthy food program.
On October 17, expanding upon the Parents' Bill of Rights introduced in 2023, Moe announced that his "first order of business" after reelection would be to immediately enact rules requiring school students to use the changing rooms that correspond to their biological sex. The Saskatchewan Party stated that it had "received calls and correspondence" regarding an October 16 report from the Western Standard, which detailed a complaint from the parent of a rural school student who had seen two trans girls using the girls' changing room. The Canadian Press reported that a parent of the two students was one of the NDP's candidates. The proposal was not in the platform published by the Saskatchewan Party, and faced criticism from the NDP, STF, and LGBT rights advocates for harming the safety of transgender students. Regina Douglas Park MLA Nicole Sarauer stated that "no leader, community, political or otherwise, should aid in anyway to the outing or othering of children." Saskatchewan Party officials denied it was directly involved with the outing, and Moe later claimed he was unaware of the two children, and that "I never once spoke to any of the individuals, nor will I, nor should anyone." In November 2024, Moe walked back his declaration and stated that he had misspoke, saying that his first order of business would be to form a cabinet, and that the Minister of Education would enter into a consulting phase on policies with school boards following municipal and school board elections.
On the economic front, Moe stated that he would reduce personal income taxes, expand the tuition rebate offered in its graduate retention program, remove the carbon tax on heating oil, and establish new tax credits and rebates for first-time homeowners and families with children involved in the arts or sports. Beck stated that she would balance the province's budget within four years and cut $58 million in "Saskatchewan Party waste" within her first year of office. Beck also stated that she would suspend the provincial gas tax for six months, end the PST for groceries and children's clothing, and establish an accountability commission to investigate issues such as cost overruns on government projects.
Jon Hromek launched the Saskatchewan United Party's campaign on October 2, 2024, describing it as a "true conservative option", and hoping to have at least two candidates elected to the Legislative Assembly. Its platform focused on goals such as cutting the provincial sales tax, ending the fuel tax, lowering property taxes for homeowners over 65, reviewing the royalty framework for potash, privatization of health care, a commitment to coal and natural gas energy and the suspension of green energy projects, removing "ideology" and "indoctrination" from school curricula, and proposals to prohibit transgender women from occupying women-only spaces or competing in women's sports. It was suggested that the Saskatchewan United Party could potentially split the right-wing vote with the Saskatchewan Party, although Scott Moe downplayed these concerns.
On October 22, it was reported that the front window of the office of Saskatchewan Party candidate Rahul Singh had been vandalized, with damage resembling small bullet holes. The party initially claimed that the vandalism was the result of a gun attack. The Regina Police Service stated that it had investigated a report of mischief reported on the evening of October 21, and that there was no evidence that firearms were involved.
The NDP has received endorsements from multiple current and former Saskatchewan Party members and MLAs, including from Speaker Randy Weekes.
Timeline
2020
- October 26: The Saskatchewan Party wins a majority government in the 2020 Saskatchewan general election. The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party forms the official opposition. No other parties won seats in the election.
2022
- February 18: Ryan Meili announces his intention to resign as NDP leader. He intends to remain leader until a successor is chosen.
- June 26: Carla Beck is elected as Leader of the Saskatchewan NDP.
- November 30: The Saskatchewan United Party is registered with Elections Saskatchewan, with MLA Nadine Wilson its leader.
2023
- July 19: The Saskatchewan Liberal Party changes their party name to the Saskatchewan Progress Party.
2024
- May 16: Nadine Wilson stepped down as leader of the Saskatchewan United Party, and Jon Hromek was appointed as the new leader.
- October 1: The election campaign begins.
- October 12: Candidate nomination deadline at 2pm.
- October 22–26: Voting week.
- October 28: Final day of voting, first preliminary count. Saskatchewan Party wins fifth consecutive majority government.
- October 30: Second preliminary count, mail-in ballots received by October 26 counted.
- November 9: Final count, mail-in ballots received between October 27 and November 7 counted along with all hospital and remand centre votes. Returning officers will be verifying the numbers in each electoral district.
Candidates