David Karwacki, leader of the Liberal Party

David Karwacki says his experience with the University of Saskatchewan basketball team taught him how to turn a losing squad into winners. As leader of the Liberal Party, he'll first need to get a team on the court
- and get himself off the sidelines.

He's got his work cut out for him. The Liberals won just three seats in the 1999 provincial election, and those MLAs joined with the New Democrats to form a coalition government. Karwacki wasn't one of them when he became party leader in October 2001. Following his victory, he asked his three fellow party members to withdraw from the coalition.

Only Jack Hillson, whom Karwacki had defeated for the leadership, complied; the others, Jim Melenchuk and Ron Osika, declared themselves independents and remained in the government.

(Going into this election, Melenchuk is the coalition government's finance minister. Osika is minister of government relations and aboriginal affairs, as well as the minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Property Management Corporation.)

So now the man who would drive up the middle, between the left-leaning New Democrats and the right-leaning Saskatchewan Party, has to fight the election without two-thirds of his caucus -- not to mention two of the Liberals' highest-profile members - on board. Fortunately for him,
Karwacki says his competitive nature gives him the advantage he needs to overcome that kind of a handicap.

The third-party leader who would be premier is the son of two Saskatoon teachers, and comes from a family with strong Liberal ties. His father, Vic, was the president of the party in the early 1990s under the leadership of Lynda Haverstock, and his brother, Grant, ran in 1999 as a Liberal candidate in the Saskatoon Southeast riding (where he lost to NDP candidate Pat Lorje by just 38 votes).

While attending the University of Saskatchewan's College of Commerce, Karwacki dreamed of becoming a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After graduating, however, he opted to stay in Saskatoon and start his own business. The result was Star Produce Ltd., a fruit and vegetable distributor that he founded with three partners. These days, when he's not wearing his Liberal leader hat, Karwacki serves as the
company's chief executive officer.

That experience, from which he developed a reputation for strong business skills, has given Karwacki some credibility on matters financial; that's no small advantage in a race where the management of Crown corporations is expected to be a big issue.

At 38, Karwacki is the youngest of the three major leaders in this election, and he's clearly hoping that his business experience and youthful energy score some points for his team. He has been married to his wife, Laurie, for 13 years and has four children: Jonathan, 11; Alix, 9; Sarah, 7; and Luke, 5.

Despite the loss of those high profile candidates, Karwacki says he has a strong team in the important urban constituencies of Regina and
Saskatoon. He also figures that some rural seats held by the Saskatchewan Party are "winnable" for the Liberals.

His team's playbook will emphasize its differences from the two other parties. On Crown corporations, for instance, Karwacki has echoed the Saskatchewan Party's charges of mismanagement; unlike them, he would not rush to sell or privatize the companies, but has promised (like the NDP) to make them thrive under a firmer set of rules.

Similarly, he agrees with the Saskatchewan Party commitment to refocus the province's utility providers (such as SaskPower, SaskTel and SGI) on their core services. Karwacki would go a step further, however, and sell the merits of those services on the international market - a plan the Saskatchewan Party has labeled counterproductive and bad economic policy.

But Karwacki will only get to influence government policy (or, in the best case scenario, dictate it) if he and a good number of his fellow Liberal candidates can win some seats. His brother Grant will once again stand as a candidate (this time in the NDP stronghold of Saskatoon Nutana), but it will take more than the support of his family to put the Liberals on the scoreboard. And, as it stands, Karwacki won't ever be a contender unless he can get his team into the game.

to top