James Wood, Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News Service
With only two constituencies covering the whole of northern Saskatchewan, picking an elected representative takes on added significance.
As the parties battle it out in what has long been an NDP stronghold, the June 25 Cumberland byelection is being framed around the question of who best can represent northern interests while fighting for needed road, housing and infrastructure development and job training.
For Saskatchewan Party candidate Dale McAuley, the answer is clearly someone on the government side of the legislature.
The one thing I'd like to clearly point out, there's certainly a big advantage to being on the government side of the house ... that's what I'm offering to the people of the constituency," the former mayor of Cumberland House said in an interview last week.
But NDP candidate Doyle Vermette said that while it's an alluring argument, northerners aren't buying it.
"People want somebody who will speak up on the northern issues, speak up for the issues and concerns they're dealing with. In Opposition, I think as the NDP candidate I can do that ... people don't want somebody sitting there apologizing for what the Sask. Party isn't doing for the north," said Vermette, a former Air Ronge councillor and current chair of the Northern Lights School Division.
Vermette questioned whether the Sask. Party is serious about winning the seat but acknowledged he's feeling a bit of pressure just because of the NDP's record of success in the seat. A New Democrat has held Cumberland since it took its contemporary form in 1971.
NDP MLA Joan Beatty was re-elected last fall with almost 66 per cent of the vote, the largest vote share of any New Democrat as the party was pushed from power after 16 years.
But Beatty abruptly resigned less than two months after the provincial election to run -- ultimately unsuccessfully -- as a Liberal in the federal byelection in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River in March.
However Vermette, McAuley and Green Party candidate Tory McGregor all downplayed the effect of Beatty's bombshell departure on the race.
While Cumberland was the top NDP constituency in the last election, it was also relatively fertile ground for the Greens.
The party's 6.21 per cent of the vote and third-place showing was its best in the province, although its candidate was a prominent local lawyer.
With the Liberals not fielding a candidate in a byelection for the first time since 1983, the Cumberland race fits in with the Greens' stated goal of luring Liberal voters, acknowledged McGregor, the party's deputy leader.
While McGregor expects the NDP to win, the byelection is also an opportunity to build the Green party in the north, said McGregor, a university student and army reservist who lives in Regina.
"I'm getting a pretty positive response because there are some pretty impassioned residents. There's a lot of concern about the quality of water, there's a lot of concern over development ... there's a lot of concern over air quality," he said.
The Sask. Party government is touting increased spending on roads and schools and the extension of natural gas service as key selling points. But the NDP characterizes those actions as simply continuing activities from its former government while accusing the new government of cutting programs for northern training and the northern fishing industry.
In a constituency with a large aboriginal population, the Sask. Party is also emphasizing the government's "duty to consult" with First Nations and Metis when development encroaches on traditional land. However, the recent roundtable on the issue did see greater demands on the government in terms of resource revenue-sharing than it is prepared to give.
The Green platform for Cumberland has three main planks: The introduction of binding legislation to make First Nations and Metis legal partners in northern development, the creation of an environmental review commission to oversee resource development and the relocation of senior First Nations and Metis Relations and Northern Affairs civil servants to northern Saskatchewan.
