(Facebook/Saskatchewan New Democratic Party).

By Aaron Schulze

Sask. Election 2020

Rod McCorriston named Saskatchewan NDP’s nominee for Carrot River Valley

Jun 12, 2020 | 8:45 AM

A former Tisdale resident is returning home to potentially become the area’s Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).

Rod McCorriston was officially unveiled as the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party’s (NDP) nominee for the Carrot River Valley district during a nomination meeting held via Zoom on Thursday, June 11. He was born and raised in Tisdale and worked for the Department of Highways for 20 years prior to becoming the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union’s director of labour relations in Regina for the previous 10 years. He added he still has family in Hudson Bay, Nipawin, and Tisdale.

McCorriston told northeastNOW he’s been working on becoming Carrot River Valley’s NDP nominee since last fall. He’s happy to finally be able to start his campaign.

“The reason I’m running now is I’ve been a continuous learner throughout my life,” McCorriston said. “I’m at the point where I’m getting ready to retire and thought I could give back to the community where I was born and raised and provide them with a stronger voice.”

McCorriston’s ambitions for the Carrot River Valley, if he were to be elected, would be to fix worn down highways, provide higher speed internet in rural areas, and recruit and retain more healthcare professionals. He touted the party’s Renew Saskatchewan climate and energy program.

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“We’ll put in place a procurement plan that [the provincial government will] have to reward the contracts to Saskatchewan companies,” he said. “If that’s not possible, then Saskatchewan workers get first dibs on the jobs. [We’ll] build up renewable energies, offer industry loans that come off [residents’] bills, so you can put solar on your house and pay less in power. Putting a Saskatchewan-First Climate Change plan in place that will adhere to the federal criteria. That will allow us to exempt certain businesses that have already provided a good carbon footprint, like farmers,” he said.

As his campaign will begin in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, McCorriston acknowledges he’ll have to rely more on social media platforms and telephone conversations, as face-to-face contact will be scarce.

Leader’s response

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili expressed his approval of McCorriston as his party’s nominee for Carrot River Valley.

“Rod’s a hard-working man himself from the area who also knows that it matters for working people to come together and fight for their rights and needs,” Meili said. “That’s something he’s been hard at for a long time and he’s got a great reputation locally and throughout the province. He’s a great addition to the team.”

Meili will need McCorriston to be as strong of a candidate as he makes him out to be. The Sask. NDP’s have not won the Carrot River Valley riding since 1995 which was before the Saskatchewan Party was founded in 1997. The Sask. Party has been elected six consecutive times in Carrot River Valley: 1999, 2003 by-election, 2003 general election, 2007, 2011, and 2016.

The incumbent MLA, Fred Bradshaw, has been Carrot River Valley’s representative in the legislature since 2007. In the previous two provincial elections, Bradshaw won with over 75 per cent of the vote .

Despite back-to-back landslide losses, Meili believes the NDP has a chance to turn Carrot River Valley orange in 2020. He claims the Sask. Party has shown little support for farmers and critiqued the shutdown of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company in 2017 and a lack of investment in rural internet.

“A lot of people in rural Saskatchewan have been taken for granted,” Meili claimed. “The Sask. Party expects rural votes, but they don’t have rural best interests in mind. Having a local candidate like Rod being able to seek an alternative way of doing things is a big help.”

Elsewhere in the northeast, the Sask. NDP’s named Linda Patenaude as their nominee for the Kelvington-Wadena district. Meili did not provide a date for nomination meetings in the Melfort or Humboldt-Watrous districts as they continue their selection process. Humboldt-Watrous, Kelvington-Wadena, and Melfort are all held by the Sask. Party with Donna Harpauer, Hugh Nerlien, and Todd Goudy as MLA’s respectively.

The 2020 Saskatchewan general election is set to be held on Oct. 26.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow