(Saskatchewan Party/Hugh Nerlien, MLA for Kelvington-Wadena)

By Cam Lee

Nerlien calling it quits

‘An honour and a privilege’: Nerlien discusses departure from politics

May 15, 2024 | 12:00 PM

Another local SaskParty MLA has decided against running in the upcoming election.

Months after Humboldt-Watrous MLA Donna Harpauer and Carrot River Valley MLA Fred Bradshaw announced they would not seek re-election, Kelvington-Wadena representative Hugh Nerlien said he would also not run again.

Nerlien told northeastNOW he thought about the decision for a while, and several factors led to his decision.

“I’ve served eight years and accomplished a lot of the things I set out to do, and I just thought it was time,” Nerlien explained. “We’ve got some family moving around a little bit, so we wanted to spend some more time with family and grandchildren.”

Nerlien said his grandkids will be moving closer to them, and he wanted more free time with them. The changing family circumstances led him to change his mind on running again, after being acclaimed as the SaskParty candidate for Kelvington-Wadena last August.

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Nerlien was first elected in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. He said when he was first nominated as the SaskParty candidate nearly 10 years ago, he wanted to focus on local highway improvements and the economy.

“We’ve made some significant improvements to our highways and our highway network across the constituency. I think we added about 12 (cellphone) towers in the constituency during my term.”

The SaskParty announced in the same news release that Saskatoon Riversdale MLA Marv Friesen is also choosing not to run. Dustin Duncan, Don McMorris, Gord Wyant, and Gary Grewal are also not seeking re-election, while Greg Lawrence was turfed from caucus following an assault charge.

Despite the significant turnover, Nerlien maintained it’s not out of the ordinary. He said there were 14 new SaskParty MLAs in 2016, when several founding party members declined to run.

“I think eight years, 10 years, 12 years, that kind of thing is a good time to serve, but it’s also an opportunity to step aside and let others run,” said Nerlien. “It’s been an honour and a privilege to serve the constituents.”

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK