SASKATOON – Saskatchewan Party delegates will be hard at work today on the main day of business at the party’s convention at TCU Place.
The convention got under way Friday night, but Saturday will see the main agenda items including speeches, the review vote on Premier Scott Moe’s leadership, and a decision on who becomes party president.
The lone policy item to be voted on is a proposed change to the party constitution, which so far has produced the most fireworks of any item on the convention's agenda.
That amendment is proposing to remove members’ voting rights for permanent residents as well as those under 18. Premier Moe has told reporters the proposal would bring the membership rules in line with those of Elections Saskatchewan for voting in provincial election.
But that potential change has drawn criticism this week from opposition New Democrats, who have blasted the proposal as discrimination. On Friday, prior to the opening of the convention, NDP MLAs and number of youth and new Canadians were outside TCU Place protesting the proposed change.
The debate on the constitutional change is scheduled for the afternoon. Highlights on the agenda Saturday morning include the address to the convention by Premier Moe prior to the leadership review vote. Prior to Moe's speech is a scheduled guest speaker appearance by talk show host Ben Mulroney, son of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The main theme for the convention is how the party can win back the cities. The Sask Party lost every seat in Regina and all but one in Saskatoon in the 2024 provincial election, their worst showing in the two major cities since 1999.
Saskatoon Willowgrove MLA Ken Cheveldayoff was the lone survivor of that urban NDP sweep and is acting as emcee for the proceedings Saturday.
“One of the themes at the convention is going to be Earn Back Saskatoon, and Earn Back Regina,” Cheveldayoff said to reporters this week.
“We’re not cocky in any way, we’re very humble and we feel that we have to do better, we have to do better, we’ll have to work harder and we have listen more to return those seats — there were roughly ten that were taken from us in the last election — and return those to the Sask Party side of the house, and we’ll do that by listening to people across the province.”
To win those two cities back, Cheveldayoff said, it will be by “listening to their concerns, to ensuring that we have the answers to the questions that they ask, by doing better on health care. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re listening very closely, we’re looking at two additional urgent care centres, the one in Regina is working very well, people in Saskatoon want to have the same type of facilities.”
In speaking to reporters this week, Premier Moe was optimistic about the convention.
“It's going to be a great convention,” said Moe. “And really, I think, an opportunity for us to launch our conversation about the work that we're going to do not only as elected members, not only as candidates, but the work that we're going to do as Saskatchewan Party constituency teams, volunteers across the province, and earning back the majority of Saskatchewan people's trust so that we can form a six-term government.”
As for what he would consider to be a good result, Moe said he “never thought about what it should be, what it could be. We have parameters around that as well. I guess what I am thankful for is that I'm part of a party that most certainly is grassroots, where members have a say. They have a say in the motions that come to the floor. They have a say in, obviously, the leadership of their party, and they have a say in the very nominations that we hold across the province.”
Moe says he’ll run in next provincial election
Based on what Moe said to reporters at the Legislature this week, it does not appear he is interested in departing as Premier any time soon — assuming he gets a good showing in the leadership review vote Saturday.
When asked Thursday if he planned to stay on and run in the 2028 election, Moe said “that's my intent, and that's my intent to certainly work as hard as ever, not only with the MLAs that we have here and candidates in the lead-up to the next election, but to work hard with so many volunteers across the province, many that are going to be at our convention this weekend, and we're looking forward to it.”
As for the opposition New Democrats, who have made a habit in the last several months of referring to various cabinet ministers in the House as “potential Sask Party leadership candidates”, Moe had this to say:
“I don't know who would have intel on what's happening within the Saskatchewan Party caucus, but it certainly wouldn't be the NDP.”
