Carrot River Valley candidates talk legislative sitting, upcoming election

Bradshaw said even committee meetings were different with much less people around and everyone having to distance themselves from each other. He still called it a productive sitting as they were able to table the budget as well. Bradshaw said even though it’s a difficult time, they aren’t going to be cutting back. The example he gave was the school in Carrot River that will still be built.

On the New Democrat Party (NDP) side, Rod McCorriston is the nominee for the Carrot River Valley riding and said all in all, the party did what they could in a strange sitting.

“I think that the NDP crammed in as much as they could over the short three weeks,” he said.

McCorriston was critical of the Sask Party saying they’ve said they haven’t privatized any crown corporations, but pointed to the Saskatchewan Communications Network in 2010, as well as the Information Services Corporation. He said the NDP wants to bring that to the forefront as things move forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused problems for businesses and essentially the whole population of Saskatchewan. McCorriston gave the Sask Party some credit in their response during the pandemic as they’ve tried to get Saskatchewan people back to work.

“They did put some money into infrastructure, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “The thing that is strange about that is we have the ability to use those dollars to get Saskatchewan workers back to work.”

McCorriston added in the past, those projects have gone out of province. He added that a ton of credit goes to the residents of the province for keeping the curve flat.

Bradshaw praised the resiliency of Saskatchewan as a big reason for the response during the pandemic.

“I totally believe that Saskatchewan is going to come out of it better than other provinces,” Bradshaw told northeastNOW. “That’s not to say we will not have hurt, obviously we do. But we want to move the province forward, and I think that’s the difference between us and the other guys.”

The moving Saskatchewan forward moniker is a big one for Bradshaw as he said the party wants to move the province forward as quickly as possible, even during these challenging times.

“I think we want people to have an optimistic look on the future,” he said.

McCorriston on the other hand thinks the Sask Party is doing the opposite and is taking the electorate for granted.

“They seem to be stuck in neutral,” _{-Rod McCorriston}

“And with our plan, we’re trying to get people interested in more long-term strategies,” McCorriston said. “We’re trying to generate some income by raising the minimum wage, we think that’ll create some economic opportunity in rural Saskatchewan that will increase some of the economy and get some jobs happening.”

He also mentioned the party would like to bring back some form of the Saskatchewan Transit Company. McCorriston added he’s heard a lot of interest about the Re-New Saskatchewan Plan set out by the NDP.

“A lot of people are quite interested in moving to solar and doing it in such a way that it’s not going to hurt their pocket book,” McCorriston told northeastNOW. “And over time they’re going to end up paying less in energy costs.”

Voters head to the polls on Oct. 26, and both candidates mentioned that it’s going to be an interesting and strange election. McCorriston and Bradshaw have begun their campaigns in some sort of way, but there are still a few questions as to how they can campaign this year.

“Are we going to be out there door knocking as much as we do,” Bradshaw said. “How about our office, our elections campaign office, how are we going to actually run that?”

Bradshaw said those are answer that will come from the Chief Electoral Officer in time.

McCorriston was named as the NDP candidate for the riding back in June, while Bradshaw beat out Terry Youzwa for the nomination in June of 2019.

Bradshaw has held the seat for the riding since the 26th General Election in 2007. He’s received over 75 per cent of the votes in the 27th and 28th General Election in 2011 and 2016. The NDP has not held a seat in the Carrot River Valley since 1995.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6

by Mat Barrett

Carrot River Valley candidates talk legislative sitting, upcoming election

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