Fraser Tolmie will represent Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan for a second term in Parliament after cruising to victory in the April 28 federal election. Tolmie garnered 71.9 per cent of the votes cast in the riding. A distant second was Tabitha Mukamusoni of the Liberal Party, with 16.7 per cent of the vote. Britt Baumann of the NDP received 7.5 per cent, Chey Craik of the People’s Party of Canada had 2.9 per cent and Mike Gardiner of the Green Party had 0.9 per cent.
“I’m deeply grateful to the people of Moose Jaw-Lake Centre Lanigan for trusting me with their votes. It is an honour and a privilege to serve them and fight for them in Ottawa,” Tolmie told the Leader in the form of a news release. “This decisive win in our local campaign took an entire team to achieve. I wouldn’t be here without my campaign team, volunteers, supporters, and donors who spread our message of change for our country and helped deliver such a commanding result on election day.”
Reflecting on the upcoming Parliamentary session, Tolmie had this to say about what to expect when MPs return to Ottawa. “There are things to be proud of from this campaign nationally, and some big things to improve on, but we need to hit the ground running because we have no idea how long this government is going to last. “Conservatives will be a government in waiting, and we just don’t know how long that wait will be. We will work with this government when we can, but we will also firmly hold them to account.” Tolmie is one of 13 Conservatives who won in the province. The other seat went to the Liberal Party’s Buckley Belanger, who picked up 65.1 per cent of the vote in the Desnethé-Missinippi Churchill River riding. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is hopeful Belanger will be a strong voice for the province in the Liberal caucus.
Nationally, the Liberal Party won for the fourth consecutive time. It was a stunning victory, given polls showed the Conservative’s with a 20-point lead in January. The Liberals led by three points days before the election. The Liberals finished with 169 seats, three short of forming a majority government. The Conservatives won in 144 ridings. According to political analysts, the Liberal fortunes turned when Justin Trudeau stepped down as the party’s leader, as well as the inauguration of Donald Trump, who slapped tariffs on Canada soon after, and talked often about Canada becoming the 51st State. Those were fighting words among Canadians.
The election of Mark Carney — who has a background in economics — as Liberal leader, gave the Liberals another boost, analysts said. Analysts say Pierre Poilievre’s Trump-style hurt his chances, although the Conservative leader tried to distance himself from Trump’s endorsement. Poilievre lost his seat in Ontario. “It was the ‘anybody-but-Conservative’ factor, it was the Trump tariff factor, and then it was the Trudeau departure … which enabled a lot of left-of-centre voters and traditional Liberal voters to come back to the party,” Sha- chi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute polling firm, told the Reuters, a world-wide news agency. Moe told reporters that he “would take this opportunity to invite Prime Minister Carney to a meeting here in Saskatchewan, where we’d love to host him to chart a productive path forward for our province within the nation of Canada.” He said in heard positives in Carney’s victory speech. In the speech, Carney said he under- stands concerns from Alberta and Saskatchewan and he will work for all Canadians. Carney also said Canada should become an energy superpower while fighting climate change. “What I heard last night is a prime minister, and I’m hoping a Liberal Party, that isn’t giving up on Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan people and the role that Saskatchewan plays in Confederation.”
(Information from various news sources was also used to compile this story.)