Liberal, NDP leaders make 1st campaign stops in Conservative-held Saskatchewan
Polls suggest Liberal Party has gained support in Prairies since January
The federal Liberal and NDP leaders made their first Saskatchewan campaign stops in Saskatoon Wednesday, hoping to pull on threads of support in a province blanketed by Conservative blue in the past two federal elections.
Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney spoke in Saskatchewan's largest city Wednesday evening, after visiting Calgary earlier in the day.
Some of those who came to see him said they were committed Liberal voters, while others said they were curious to see him in person.
"I'm a general Liberal supporter," said rally attendee Jessica Chalus.
"I definitely swing a little bit left. I've supported NDP in the past, but I feel this election, it's too important to vote for somebody that probably doesn't have the potential of winning, and I don't want to split the vote."
Diane McDougall, who said she only discovered the day before that Carney was coming to Saskatoon, was most interested in hearing about how the Liberal leader would deal with U.S. tariffs, the federal deficit and the housing crisis.
"I'm here to have a good listen in what Mark Carney has to say. I'm interested in his perspective, in his platform," she said. "I want to see the person in real time."
Carney is campaigning in a province where the Liberals have not won a seat since the 2015 federal election, when Ralph Goodale was re-elected to represent Regina-Wascana.
That year, three NDP candidates were voted into Saskatchewan seats: one each in Saskatoon and Regina, and another in Saskatchewan's northernmost and geographically largest seat, Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River.
In the two federal elections since then (2021 and 2019), both parties were shut out in Saskatchewan.
However, polling averages calculated by CBC's Poll Tracker suggest growing support for the Liberals in the Prairie provinces since early January, around the time Justin Trudeau stepped down from his post as Liberal leader and prime minister.
The Liberal party's recent success in the Prairies appears to have mostly come at the expense of the NDP, according to the Poll Tracker.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also hosted an event in Saskatoon on Wednesday evening.
In the 2021 election, Singh's NDP won 25 seats nationwide. As of April 9, CBC's Poll Tracker is projecting the NDP will win five seats across Canada.
A political party needs at least 12 elected members in the House of Commons to be a recognized party or have official party status.
Singh spoke Tuesday in Vancouver, including making a policy announcement about building homes and pledging to deliver full public pharmacare within four years.
In Saskatoon, Singh responded to comments made about him by Sask. Party MLA Racquel Hilbert, who described Singh as a "terrorist in India," during a budget debate last month.
"I am worried the message that it sends," Singh said. "I hope that any young folks out there anywhere in our country feel like they belong and that they could be who they are and that they're not singled out just because of the way they look."
Hilbert has since apologized for the remarks, saying they were inaccurate and inappropriate.
Reneé Nunan-Rappard attended the NDP rally in Saskatoon and said she's planning to vote NDP because of its strong stance on international law.
Nunan-Rappard said she is focused on the Israel-Hamas war and says this is a one-issue election for her.
"This is plain and simple a genocide issue. I do not want to vote for anyone who supports genocide with my — our — tax money, right?"
Plum Nieman is concerned with local issues.
"I'm concerned about the drug overdoses that are happening in Saskatoon and I'm concerned about the housing crisis that's been going on and we've just been getting no support out here at all," Nieman said.
"The way that the world has been going, it's just, you know, we say meet in the middle and the right keeps pushing further right.
"So the middle keeps moving further right. And the only way to combat this to come back hard left because we're moving so far that we don't recognize how radically right we are."
Saskatchewan's provincial leaders said Tuesday they wanted more attention paid to the province on the federal election campaign trail. CBC learned the two federal leaders planned to campaign in Saskatoon shortly afterward.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Wednesday morning and was scheduled to host a rally in Brampton, Ont., later the same day. So far, the Conservative leader has not campaigned in Saskatchewan.
Election day in Canada is April 28.
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With files from Joel Dryden, Courtney Dickson and Chris Edwards