Background: The Wexit Facebook page exploded after the Justin Trudeau Liberals were re-elected to government on October 19, 2019. Wexit Saskatchewan gathered 3,500 signatures from 12 constituencies and became an official party on March 10, 2020. The party name was changed to the Buffalo Party in June and Wade Sira was named interim leader..Strengths: Volunteers showed plenty of diligence when they blew away the signature threshold to achieve party status less than five months after the last federal election. That kind of legwork is what it takes to build a party from scratch. Their promotionalvideo featuring Sira is inspiring and surprisingly well-produced..The party platform reclaims ground abdicated by the Saskatchewan Party such as maintaining three coal-fired power plants slated to close, and taking the PST off of used vehicles and restaurant bills. The party also wants to hold elections for senators, the Lieutenant Governor, and judges. New legislation would facilitate citizen-initiated referendums for legislation or to recall elected official. These ideas generally play well in rural areas. .The Buffalo Party policy document has also borrowed a policy plank of the NDP by proposing the province exit the New West Partnership and implement a Saskatchewan-first hiring policy for government contracts. .Weaknesses: Some of the platform ideas are aspirational but impractical in the way confederation currently works. The platform incorporates ideas already considered by Alberta, such as moving the collection of taxes into the province, and opting out of the Canada Pension Plan to replace it with a provincial version. But the ideas make less sense in Saskatchewan than for its western neighbour due to a lower population and weaker demographics. The Buffalo Party wants to replace the Mounties with a provincial police force, but that could potentially cost Saskatchewan the RCMP training centre and museum..The party has only slated candidate for 14 of 61 ridings, and most have never run in an election before. Although the NDP gained official opposition status with 10 seats in 2016, the Buffalo Party will be very lucky to get one..Opportunities: The Buffalo Party has the opportunity of being the first of the new wave of sovereigntist parties to have an election on the prairies, breaking ground for its Wildrose counterpart in Alberta, and the Mavericks federally. Electoral success will be harder to find, but the several candidates have a chance at making at least a dent. .Buffalo Party interim leader Wade Sira is running in the only riding where the Saskatchewan Party incumbent is not returning and there is no Progressive Conservative candidate. In 2016, Nancy Heppner won Martensville-Warman with 79 per cent of the vote, while the NDP’s Jasmine Calix took 17 per cent. Both parties will be represented by new candidates this time..Cut Knife-Turtleford candidate Richard Nelson has experience running in federal Conservative nomination races and would be successful if he could take second place. In 2016, Larry Doke of the Saskatchewan Party took the riding with nearly 80 per cent of the vote, while the NDP’s Danica Lorer took 958 votes for 13 per cent. Neither will run in this election. The PCs will be represented by Allison Nesdoly, whose husband John ran for the Western Independence Party (WIP) there in 2007, getting just 66 votes. In 2003, Josaiah Rise ran for the WIP, getting 174 votes for 2.7 per cent of the total..Kindersley candidate Jason Cooper was elected as a school board trustee and served on federal Conservative and Saskatchewan Party boards. When the Sask Party’s Bill Boyd won in 2016, independent candidate Jason Dearborn – a former Sask Party MLA – took second with 18 percent of the vote. The NDP received only 10 per cent of the vote in the 2018 by-election, and just 7 per cent during the 2016 general election..Estevan candidate Phil Zajac ran as a People’s Party candidate in Souris-Moose Mountain in the last federal election. He finished fourth with 702 votes for 1.69 per cent of the total. He will face Sask Party incumbent MLA Lori Carr and rookies Seth Lendrum of the NDP and Linda Sopp of the PC’s. In 2016, the NDP took 9 per cent of the vote and the PC’s 8.8 per cent..Threats: The Buffalo Party changed its name to distance itself from more radical elements of the Wexit movement. Although the candidates have been vetted, the provincial campaign has already seen past words and actions haunt Sask Party and NDP candidates. While the Buffalo Party has received relatively little attention by the mainstream media during the election, an embarrassing dig on one of their candidates is a real risk. .Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan Correspondent for the Western Standard
Background: The Wexit Facebook page exploded after the Justin Trudeau Liberals were re-elected to government on October 19, 2019. Wexit Saskatchewan gathered 3,500 signatures from 12 constituencies and became an official party on March 10, 2020. The party name was changed to the Buffalo Party in June and Wade Sira was named interim leader..Strengths: Volunteers showed plenty of diligence when they blew away the signature threshold to achieve party status less than five months after the last federal election. That kind of legwork is what it takes to build a party from scratch. Their promotionalvideo featuring Sira is inspiring and surprisingly well-produced..The party platform reclaims ground abdicated by the Saskatchewan Party such as maintaining three coal-fired power plants slated to close, and taking the PST off of used vehicles and restaurant bills. The party also wants to hold elections for senators, the Lieutenant Governor, and judges. New legislation would facilitate citizen-initiated referendums for legislation or to recall elected official. These ideas generally play well in rural areas. .The Buffalo Party policy document has also borrowed a policy plank of the NDP by proposing the province exit the New West Partnership and implement a Saskatchewan-first hiring policy for government contracts. .Weaknesses: Some of the platform ideas are aspirational but impractical in the way confederation currently works. The platform incorporates ideas already considered by Alberta, such as moving the collection of taxes into the province, and opting out of the Canada Pension Plan to replace it with a provincial version. But the ideas make less sense in Saskatchewan than for its western neighbour due to a lower population and weaker demographics. The Buffalo Party wants to replace the Mounties with a provincial police force, but that could potentially cost Saskatchewan the RCMP training centre and museum..The party has only slated candidate for 14 of 61 ridings, and most have never run in an election before. Although the NDP gained official opposition status with 10 seats in 2016, the Buffalo Party will be very lucky to get one..Opportunities: The Buffalo Party has the opportunity of being the first of the new wave of sovereigntist parties to have an election on the prairies, breaking ground for its Wildrose counterpart in Alberta, and the Mavericks federally. Electoral success will be harder to find, but the several candidates have a chance at making at least a dent. .Buffalo Party interim leader Wade Sira is running in the only riding where the Saskatchewan Party incumbent is not returning and there is no Progressive Conservative candidate. In 2016, Nancy Heppner won Martensville-Warman with 79 per cent of the vote, while the NDP’s Jasmine Calix took 17 per cent. Both parties will be represented by new candidates this time..Cut Knife-Turtleford candidate Richard Nelson has experience running in federal Conservative nomination races and would be successful if he could take second place. In 2016, Larry Doke of the Saskatchewan Party took the riding with nearly 80 per cent of the vote, while the NDP’s Danica Lorer took 958 votes for 13 per cent. Neither will run in this election. The PCs will be represented by Allison Nesdoly, whose husband John ran for the Western Independence Party (WIP) there in 2007, getting just 66 votes. In 2003, Josaiah Rise ran for the WIP, getting 174 votes for 2.7 per cent of the total..Kindersley candidate Jason Cooper was elected as a school board trustee and served on federal Conservative and Saskatchewan Party boards. When the Sask Party’s Bill Boyd won in 2016, independent candidate Jason Dearborn – a former Sask Party MLA – took second with 18 percent of the vote. The NDP received only 10 per cent of the vote in the 2018 by-election, and just 7 per cent during the 2016 general election..Estevan candidate Phil Zajac ran as a People’s Party candidate in Souris-Moose Mountain in the last federal election. He finished fourth with 702 votes for 1.69 per cent of the total. He will face Sask Party incumbent MLA Lori Carr and rookies Seth Lendrum of the NDP and Linda Sopp of the PC’s. In 2016, the NDP took 9 per cent of the vote and the PC’s 8.8 per cent..Threats: The Buffalo Party changed its name to distance itself from more radical elements of the Wexit movement. Although the candidates have been vetted, the provincial campaign has already seen past words and actions haunt Sask Party and NDP candidates. While the Buffalo Party has received relatively little attention by the mainstream media during the election, an embarrassing dig on one of their candidates is a real risk. .Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan Correspondent for the Western Standard
