'There's still a deficit and that bothers me,' Premier Brad Wall says as he prepares to exit politics

As Premier Brad Wall prepares to exit Saskatchewan politics, he sat down with CBC to speak about the highlights of his career in his final year-end interview.

Wall, who described himself as a political nerd as early as sixth grade, remembers the night he was elected as the MLA for Swift Current in 1999.

"My dream had come true," he said. "I just wanted to be able to do what I said I would in the local campaign, which is give voice to Swift Current issues."

My dream had come true.- Brad Wall on his 1999 election as Swift Current's MLA

Wall was then acclaimed as the Saskatchewan Party leader in 2004 and was elected premier in 2007, following a defeat of the NDP.

Wall then went on to lead the party to two more election wins in 2011 and 2016, before announcing his retirement in August. In January, a new party leader will be chosen. Whoever wins will replace Wall as premier.

This interview has been edited for length, clarity and context.

Adam Hunter: How much of what you hoped to get to get done have you accomplished?

Brad Wall: It's not what I accomplished; I wanted to be a part of sort of a fundamental change in the province, to be here for it…. I think the people of Saskatchewan were ready for a positive attitude and demanding it from their leaders, and we should aspire to be national leaders with the resources we have and the people we have. I wanted to be a part of that change and I think it's happened; people of Saskatchewan made that happen. I hope we have set the tone a little bit in government.

AH: Do you have any regrets about things that didn't get done or things you wish would have been accomplished?

BW: We balanced budgets for the first years here in government; we haven't in the last two or so, and now we won't have it balanced for three years — and that bothers me. Commodity prices were forecast to be low for one or two years and we're going into year four of that. So that's why we, in this budget, had to make some tough decisions about a structural rearrangement of the finances and moving toward consumption and away from independence on resource revenue. But even in the end, even though we have a three-year plan to balance and the second-best debt-to-GDP ratio of all the provinces, and a AAA-credit rating still that we were able to get in the last 10 years, there's still a deficit and that bothers me.

AH: The Saskatchewan Plan for Growth released in 2012 was pretty ambitious. Was it too ambitious of a plan?

BW: I don't think a plan can be too ambitious. I think government should set big goals for itself…. I think you should have bold goals. We had them around surgical wait times; we achieved them. We went from worst in the country to best for a while — second best right now, according to a report just a few weeks ago. But on ER wait times we've seen some improvement but, no, we missed that target, and the same is true for graduation rates for First Nations students. Although we have seen some improvement, we haven't reached the goals that were set out. There's lots of work undone, left to be done.

AH: What does the next leader need to do to continue your legacy?

BW: Every leader of every political party needs to get out there and meet people…. How do you connect in terms of a political organization? How does a new leader connect? You got to go around the province, you got to meet people, you got to be on their doorstep. That's what I worked hard to do early on…. It's a lot of hard work but, also, I enjoyed it; I really enjoyed it. That was one of the best parts of those early days when I became leader of the party in '04.

AH: What will it take for the party to succeed going forward?

BW: That connection with people. We have to strive to remember this is a job that requires humility first, and service. I have my own principles…. But even ahead of that we need to make sure we're reflecting the values of Saskatchewan people back to them. So if they unequivocally say, 'We don't want to see any part of the Crown, period, not five per cent, not 10 per cent,' we better listen. We better make that change.

AH: Do you think that was one of your strengths... bringing forward ideas you thought the community would like?   

BW: If you can check yourself, and correct your mistake and let folks know that you're still listening, I don't think it matters what party it is, that's a powerful thing. On the Crowns issue, for example, it became apparent as I would talk to people that though we view privatization as 51 per cent plus a controlling issue and defined it that way, people didn't share that view — and, moreover, they thought we broke a promise. And that was a very serious thing for me because, in 10 years, we worked hard to keep the promises that we made. And someone once said the eight most powerful words in politics are, 'They did what they said they would do.' I believe that to be the case.