Tank: Feisty Liberal, NDP supporters rally in solidly blue Saskatoon

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Polls suggest the federal NDP could face oblivion in the April 28 election, but feisty supporters still packed into a campaign office in Saskatoon’s Riversdale business district.

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About 300 people crammed into the space Wednesday night to chant “NDP” and listen to a seven-minute speech by leader Jagmeet Singh. “We needed this energy,” Singh told his supporters.

Singh urged the crowd to jump until the floor shook and they happily obliged as Singh’s favourite campaign song blared — Differentology from Trinidad’s Bunji Garlin with its repeated refrain of “we ready” firing up the faithful.

Saskatoon West candidate Rachel Loewen Walker reminded the audience that Saskatchewan is considered “the birthplace of the NDP.” But for federal challengers like Loewen Walker, Saskatoon has been mostly a wasteland this century.

Only Sheri Benson, who attended the rally, has won a seat for the New Democrats since a 1999 byelection victory. Benson won Saskatoon West in 2015 before losing to Conservative Brad Redekopp in 2019.

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Former provincial NDP leader Ryan Meili also attended the rally, but none of the 13 Saskatoon NDP MLAs showed as the provincial party drifts further philosophically from its federal counterpart. Sure, the legislature is in session, but Regina is only a three-hour drive away.

And the most successful NDP politician to attend a rally in Saskatoon Wednesday, former MLA Buckley Belanger, fired up the crowd a couple of hours earlier and about five blocks away at a Liberal rally featuring Leader Mark Carney.

In a campaign where crowd size has suddenly emerged as an issue thanks to Donald Trump-style bragging by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, the Liberals easily won that contest — a remarkable reversal for a party that finished a distant third in all three Saskatoon ridings in 2021 and managed less than 11 per cent of the Saskatchewan vote.

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An estimated 1,250 attended Wednesday’s Carney rally on the second floor of the Remai Modern art gallery overlooking the melting ice on the South Saskatchewan River. Hundreds lined up along River Landing to get in, reflecting an apparent thaw in the province’s long-standing Liberal loathing.

Saskatoon last elected a Liberal MP in 1993, but a recent poll suggested a resurgence and the possibility of breaking the Conservatives’ six-year dominance of the city’s three seats. The NDP, which placed second in all three seats in 2021, appears to be lagging far behind.

But projections suggest a Liberal seat in Saskatoon remains a long shot, barring the complete collapse of the NDP vote in favour of Carney’s party, a trend that is shaping up nationally with the once-languishing Liberals consistently leading polls.

Carney and Singh each delivered well-worn speeches touching on familiar themes Wednesday and neither took questions from journalists. But Carney’s speech was derailed by disruptions, first by an apparent Trump supporter who shouted “51st state” and then by others concerned about the war in Gaza.

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Regardless, Belanger is believed to have the best chance at breaking the Conservatives’ blue sweep streak in Saskatchewan, running for the second time to represent the northern half of the province in the Desnethe—Missinippi-Churchill River seat.

Belanger was first elected as a Liberal in 1995 to represent the northern Athabasca seat in the legislature, but balked at defecting to the new Saskatchewan Party.

Instead, Belanger ran in a 1998 byelection for the NDP and held Athabasca for 23 years, winning with big majorities, before he resigned to run federally for the Liberals in 2021. He told reporters Wednesday that traditional NDP supporters on the campaign trail are sharing with him the importance of avoiding a vote split.

“All I’ll say is that there a lot of good people within the NDP that are saying, “Let’s give the Liberals an opportunity where we can to work together to not send a Conservative to Ottawa,’” Belanger said.

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Conversely, Loewen Walker pointed to the Liberals’ history of poor performances in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan. As of Friday, the Liberals had nominated candidates in all 14 Saskatchewan ridings, while the NDP website only listed 11 candidates.

She told reporters Saskatoon West ranked at the “top of that list” of Saskatchewan seats where the NDP thinks it can win and added the northern riding was also “in play” for the party.

“I’m starting to feel a shift,” Loewen Walker added. “This is an election like we’ve never seen before, so people are figuring out what to do in this election.”

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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