Changing of the Guard
Bill Doskoch | CBC News Online | Oct. 28

It's said that turnover in political parties in a natural, even healthy thing. If that's true, the NDP can claim to be the healthiest party in Saskatchewan.

Seven people of 28 who were elected under the NDP banner in 1999 are no longer active in politics. One former NDP MLA is running as an independent in Regina. Of the seven, six were cabinet ministers, including Premier Roy Romanow.

The Saskatchewan Party, a relative newcomer to the scene, saw four of its 25 MLAs elected in 1999 leave the scene. Two of those died while in office.

The Liberals go into this campaign with one of four MLAs from 1999 still running under the party banner. One resigned rather than fight a byelection in 2000, and two others are running for the NDP this time. They rejected a 2001 demand by new party leader David Karwacki that they quit the coalition with the NDP, sitting as independents instead.

Here is a breakdown of who left which parties:

New Democrats:

Roy Romanow: Will undoubtedly be remembered as a giant of Saskatchewan politics. He had represented Saskatoon Riversdale from 1967-1982, and from 1986-2000, losing in 1982 by 19 votes during the great Tory sweep. He became party leader in 1987, leading it to a smashing election triumph in 1991. He won a solid re-election victory with 42 seats in 1995 and then saw his party win only 28 seats in 1999, putting it two seats short of a majority. He formed a coalition government with the Liberal Party, allowing his party to maintain power. By August 2000, following a trouble-plagued start to his government, his approval rating as premier was one of the lowest in Canada. And by late September, he announced he was going to leave politics. He was replaced as party leader by Lorne Calvert, who occupied Romanow's old Riversdale seat and who had retired from elected politics himself in 1998.

Dwain Lingenfelter: As deputy premier, he was considered by many as a potential successor to Romanow. But he announced in July 2000 that he was going to leave elected politics and seek a career in the oil and gas industry. Originally elected in Shaunavon in 1978, he lost re-election in 1986. In 1991, he moved to Regina and represented Regina Elphinstone – the old riding of former NDP premier Allan Blakeney – where he polled more votes in 1999 than all his opponents combined. Lingenfelter had also been minister of agriculture and economic diversification and trade during his time in the Romanow cabinet. His old seat is now called Regina Elphinstone-Centre, and the NDP candidate is Warren McCall, who won 56 per cent of the votes in his 2001 byelection victory. McCall is a backbencher and the youngest member of the legislature. He describes himself as a traditional left-wing NDPer, while Lingenfelter was considered to be on the right of the party's spectrum.

Chris Axworthy: First elected in Saskatoon Fairview after an 11-year career as a federal NDP MP. Many thought Axworthy, a law professor, would eventually seek the leader's job. They were right; he did but lost on the fourth ballot to Lorne Calvert. Ironically, polls showed he was more popular in the general populace as a potential NDP leader than he was in his own party. Axworthy wanted to do for the NDP what Tony Blair did for the British Labour Party. The justice minister announced his resignation in 2002 and was succeeded by union worker Andy Iwanchuk, who handily held the seat in a March byelection. Iwanchuk wasn't appointed to cabinet.

Janice MacKinnon: She was a finance and economic development minister in Romanow's government, with her final portfolio under Calvert being Crown investments. Many thought she would take aim at the party's leadership, but she decided to leave elected politics and return to life as a professor at the University of Saskatchewan. She published a book this spring that criticized Calvert's deficit budgets; she was the first finance minister in the 1990s to table a balanced budget. Her old riding of Saskatoon Idylwyld doesn't exist any more, but she was succeeded by educator David Forbes, who easily won the riding two years ago. He's now running in Saskatoon Centre. Forbes wasn't appointed to cabinet.

Pat Lorje: First elected in 1991, she gained re-election in 1999 by the extremely thin margin of 34 votes in her Saskatoon Southeast constituency. She was appointed to cabinet by Premier Calvert in 2001. He asked her to resign from her cabinet position in 2002 after she gave a media interview explaining her inappropriate contact with the face of an employee. She was given a job in Calvert's office this spring. The NDP candidate for Saskatoon Southeast is John Conway, who, like Lorje, is a psychologist.

Keith Goulet: The first Métis cabinet minister in Saskatchewan, Goulet had represented his northeast Saskatchewan constituency of Cumberland since 1986. He announced in 2001 that he wouldn't seek the seat again. He is succeeded as the NDP candidate by Joan Beatty, a rookie political candidate, First Nations Cree woman and former CBC TV journalist.

Lindy Kasperski: This backbencher was first elected in the old Regina Sherwood in 1995. He came under a cloud when he was charged with defrauding a government loan program in 1991. He was barred from caucus in 2001 when the charges were laid, but Calvert said he was welcome back after he was cleared earlier this year. However, when the party decided to open for Regina Walsh Acres for nominations, which isn't normally done with incumbent MLAs, Kasperski accused the party of betrayal, left caucus and has decided to run as an independent. His NDP opponent will be Sandra Morin, a grocery cashier and union activist.

Carolyn Jones: First elected to Saskatoon Meewasin in 1999, backbencher Jones announced in early September she would be leaving politics. She publicly supported Calvert's leadership bid. The NDP candidate there is blue-chip lawyer Frank Quennell.

Saskatchewan Party:

Bill Boyd: First elected to represent Kindersley in 1991, Boyd took over the reins of the Progressive Conservative Party from Grant Devine after the former premier exited public life. The party, enmeshed in scandal, won only five seats in 1995, including Boyd's. He was instrumental in helping form the Saskatchewan Party in 1997. The party's agriculture critic announced in 2002 he was leaving political life to spend more time with his family, but he remained involved in the party's election team. Fellow farmer candidate Jason Dearborn, who won the seat in an October 2002 byelection, will carry the party banner again this time.

Carl Kwiatkowski: The 43-year-old died suddenly in February. He was elected to represent the Carrot River Valley constituency in 1999. Allan Kerpan, a former Reform Party MP who lived outside the constituency, won the June byelection and then the party's nomination for this election.

Arlene Julé: She was first elected as a Liberal in Humboldt in 1995, taking the seat from NDP agriculture minister Eric Upshall. Julé was among those Liberals who joined the fledgling Saskatchewan Party in 1997. She won re-election in 1999, but wasn't made a formal critic of any department. Donna Harpauer, a Saskatchewan Party incumbent in Watrous, will run in Humboldt this time. Harpauer is the party's current agriculture critic.

Rudi Peters/Wally Lorenz: Peters won the Battlefords-Cutknife constituency in 1999, but then developed health problems, eventually dying last December of cancer. He was succeeded by Wally Lorenz in a March byelection. However, Lorenz lost the new Cutknife-Turtleford nomination to farmer and accountant Michael Chisholm. Lorenz was angry because the nomination meeting was held in Chisholm's home town of Maidstone.

Liberals:

Jim Melenchuk: He became party leader in 1997 after interim leader Ken Krawetz decided to cast his lot with the Saskatchewan Party. Melenchuk joined with the NDP in the 1999 coalition government, which split his party deeply. He didn't run for the party leadership in 2001, and rejected new leader David Karwacki's demand that he quit the coalition, instead sitting as an independent. The education minister will be running for the NDP in Saskatoon Northwest this time, a riding he won in 1999 by only 127 votes.

Ron Osika: The former RCMP officer took the Melville seat away from the NDP in 1995, holding it in 1999. He was elected speaker of the legislature and later joined cabinet, holding a few different portfolios. He is running in this election as an NDP candidate, also having rejected a demand to leave the coalition, choosing to sit as an independent instead.

Glen McPherson: He was first elected as an NDP MLA for Shaunavon in 1991. Two years later, he crossed the floor to join Lynda Haverstock as a Liberal. He won re-election in the Wood River constituency in 1995 and held it by one vote in 1999. A judge ordered a byelection. McPherson declined to run, in part because he had run out of money but also because he didn't support the Liberal-NDP coalition government. The Saskatchewan Party's Yogi Huyghebaert, who had finished third to McPherson as a Tory in 1995 and then right behind him in 1999, won the byelection with ease.

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