Saskatchewan's provincial election campaign will be officially underway as of next week.
Premier Brad Wall announced Wednesday he plans to visit the Lieutenant-Governor Monday afternoon to officially drop the writ for the 2011 election, which will be held Nov. 7.
The election date had long been known in advance due to the province's set-election-date legislation brought in shortly after the last election.
The premier indicated he plans to hold off on active campaigning until after the election is officially called Monday. In a statement he said "I hope everyone in Saskatchewan enjoys the Thanksgiving weekend, spends some time with their family and friends, and then let's have an election campaign."
However, the unofficial campaign is already underway as both the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP have been busy setting up campaign offices in advance of the election call. NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter already has his local campaign office ready to go in Regina, along with several other candidates.
Locally, Cut Knife-Turtleford NDP candidate Bernadette Gopher's campaign has put up signs in an office space on 22nd Street in Battleford, the same location where Glenn Tait headquartered his federal campaign efforts for the NDP earlier this spring.
As well, a couple of Saskatchewan Party signs for candidate Herb Cox have been spotted already on 100th Street in North Battleford, just down the street from NDP MLA Len Taylor's constituency office.
Saskatchewan Party and NDP billboards are also up in many other parts of the province.
Both major parties have full slates of candidates now nominated for the November vote. As well, it was announced earlier this week by new Green Party leader Victor Lau the Greens would field a full slate as well.
It would be the first election in the party's history that the Greens fielded candidates in every Saskatchewan riding. A full list of the Green candidates is now up on the party's website.
The provincial Liberals continue to lag behind the other parties in nominating candidates, with only one announced candidate as of midweek - party leader Ryan Bater in the Battlefords.
However, the party plans to step up their activities in the coming days. They are planning a music-oriented campaign kickoff event called Barnstorm in the Battlefords, scheduled for Saturday at the Agrivilla, starting around 8 p.m. Bater's band Jackwagon is one of the bands scheduled to perform at that rock show, with proceeds going to his campaign.
As well, Bater plans to speak at the party's Saskatoon Leader's Dinner at the Sheraton Cavalier Tuesday, where former Liberal MP Anne McLellan is scheduled to be a featured guest.
