The entire Northwest is now entirely in the control of the Saskatchewan Party after Monday's election victory.
Every one of the seven Northwest ridings ended up in Saskatchewan Party hands, including the lone previous holdout, the Battlefords.
Herb Cox's win by over 1,000 votes over incumbent Len Taylor, by a count of 3489 to 2436, capped a triumphant night for the governing party in a region which continues to be a bedrock area of strength for the Sask. Party provincially.
Cut Knife-Turtleford, Rosthern-Shellbrook, Biggar, Meadow Lake, Lloydminster and Kindersley again gave their votes to Sask. Party candidates. While a number of familiar names are returning to the legislature, two of those ridings saw first-time MLAs elected.
Larry Doke, a longtime Metinota councillor and a previous unsuccessful candidate for the Sask. Party in the Battlefords in 2003, finally made it to the legislature with a convincing victory in Cut Knife-Turtleford over Bernadette Gopher of the NDP.
Doke takes over the seat from Michael Chisholm, a two-term MLA who has retired as of this election. Results gave Doke 3,948 votes compared to 2,071 for Gopher and 211 for Vinessa Currie-Foster of the Green Party. Doke's popular vote percentage was a couple of percentage points higher than it had been for Chisholm previously, coming in at 63 per cent.
The victory caps an long campaign by Doke, one that began early last year when he announced his intentions to run for his party's nomination to succeed Chisholm. He captured the nomination fight over two other candidates in the fall of 2010.
Despite the defeat for the NDP, Gopher's showing was respectable under the circumstances. Speaking on election night in North Battleford to NDP supporters from both the Battlefords and Cut Knife-Turtleford at the Tropical Inn, defeated Battlefords MLA Len Taylor congratulated the Gopher campaign for "putting up one heck of a really good campaign and causing the Saskatchewan Party a little bit of anxiety during this time and advancing the New Democrats position within the communities in the Cut Knife-Turtleford constituency."
Rosthern-Shellbrook was a similar story with Scott Moe of the Sask. Party receiving 4,410 votes compared to 2,167 for Clay DeBray of the NDP and 209 for Margaret-Rose Uvery of the Green Party. The popular vote in the riding almost exactly mirrored the provincial averages for each of the three parties throughout the province.
For Moe, however, election night was probably a little anticlimactic compared to what went on earlier. The tough fight for the Shellbrook business owner came months earlier, when Moe challenged and successfully toppled incumbent MLA Denis Allchurch at his party's nomination meeting in March.
The other four Northwest ridings all saw familiar faces return to the legislature.
A race expected to be close Monday night was Meadow Lake. However, it ended up a runaway as cabinet minister Jeremy Harrison won easy re-election with 62 per cent of the vote.
Harrison received 4,124 to 2,433 for Helen Ben of the NDP and 89 for Mary Susan Merasty of the Green Party.
The result was a far cry from the hair-raising finish to the 2007 provincial election when Harrison, at that time a former Member of Parliament, eased out incumbent New Democrat Maynard Sonntagg by a mere 36 votes in what was the second closest race in the entire province. A recount was needed before it was determined that Harrison had indeed won the seat for the Saskatchewan Party.
One of the rising stars of the Sask. Party, cabinet minister Tim McMillan in Lloydminster, won easy re-election over Wayne Byers of the NDP. McMillan took 2,782 votes compared to 1,212 for Byers and 185 for Meggan Hougham of the Green Party.
In Biggar, the Saskatchewan Party's whip in the legislature, Randy Weekes, was an easy winner in a rare five-way race for the seat.
Weekes took 4,449 votes for 68.11 per cent of the vote. The NDP's Glenn Wright took 1,678, followed by Darryl Amey of the Green Party with 206, James Yachyshen of the PC Party with 171 and Dana Arnason, leader of the Western Independence Party, with 28.
Yachyshen was one of five PC candidates running across the province in this election as the party tried to revive its fortunes with active campaigns in the election. Overall the PCs finished with just .34 per cent of the popular vote across the province and their leader, Rick Swenson, finished third in Moose Jaw North with only 273 votes.
A former PC Party leader turned out to be one of the biggest winners of the night in Kindersley.
Bill Boyd, now running under the Sask. Party banner, was re-elected with a whopping 79.67 per cent of the vote in what is considered one of the safest Sask. Party seats in the province.
Boyd took 4,453 votes, sweeping away Peter Walker of the NDP with 897. Veteran Green Party candidate Norbert Kratchmer, who contested Battlefords-Lloydminster federally for the party earlier this year against Conservative MP Gerry Ritz, finished third with 239.
