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Saskatchewan Party's Fred Bradshaw won a fourth term as Carrot River Valley's MLA (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).
Bradshaw Wins Carrot River Valley

Saskatchewan Party’s Bradshaw wins fourth term as Carrot River Valley MLA

Oct 26, 2020 | 11:18 PM

The Saskatchewan Party will represent the Carrot River Valley once more.

Incumbent Member of the Legislature Assembly (MLA) Fred Bradshaw won his fourth term during the 2020 Saskatchewan general election, defeating the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party’s Rod McCorriston. Bradshaw has been Carrot River Valley’s MLA since 2007.

Bradshaw thanked constituents in the Carrot River Valley, and McCorriston for a clean race. Even though 2020 is the third straight provincial election with over 70 per cent of the riding’s vote, he was still nervous the week leading up to Oct. 26.

“In elections, you’re never sure what’s going to happen,” Bradshaw told northeastNOW. “Just last week I was especially worried, I even lost five pounds. I hope that I can do a great job for the people of Carrot River Valley.”

Looking at the provincial election map – an emphatic Saskatchewan Party majority government – Bradshaw said the election played out how he predicted.

“I think most people here agree that the Saskatchewan Party is the party that’s going to lead this province through this pandemic and forward,” Bradshaw said. “In the cities, we’re not going to know of those real close [races] until they get all the mail votes in. I’m hoping maybe we can pick up a couple of more there when the mail-in ballots are done.”

One of Bradshaw’s top priorities when he gets back to the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina is to tender Highway 55 from Carrot River to Red Earth Cree Nation, to help move product from Northeast Saskatchewan to Manitoba.

McCorriston: ‘We thought we were going to have a breakthrough’

Carrot River Valley NDP nominee Rod McCorriston was shocked and disappointed he didn’t gain more ground in the riding (Facebook/Nipawin & District Chamber of Commerce).

Moments after Bradshaw’s projected win, McCorriston said he was disappointed with the results, believing that he ran a credible, clean campaign for four months.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t gain a little ground, but we’re a resilient bunch,” McCorriston told northeastNOW. “We’ll lick our wounds and fight again another day.”

McCorriston said he wasn’t looking at a New Democratic breakthrough in rural Saskatchewan for only himself, but some of his fellow nominees are also shocked.

“We look across the province and the numbers are fairly consistent, especially in rural areas,” McCorriston said. “We thought we were going to have a breakthrough somewhere in rural Saskatchewan, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get one this time around. Certainly, it’s going to be a little bit easier with more NDP’s in the house to hold the Sask. Party a little more accountable, but it would have been nice to have a round, even number of 20 seats.”

Despite numerous NDP losses in rural areas across Saskatchewan, McCorriston said he noticed an appetite for a move towards renewable energy from constituents’ doorsteps. Knowing this, he and other candidates acknowledged the NDP’s need to bring forward more rural issues to their party platform.

“We started a rural and ag committee amongst the candidates,” he said. “The seed issue was one we talked about in the rural caucus, but it never made it into the platform. That one I think is going to play bigger in the future, that we’re supporting the ability of farmers to keep their seeds and grow their crops from their own seeds.”

McCorriston hopes he’s wrong and that Saskatchewan residents won’t see cuts from the Sask. Party, saying the 20 per cent growth projection is unrealistic. In the meantime, he said he and other NDP members will debrief and look to improve in a positive outlook.

aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow