saskatchewan general election, 2003

The Twenty-Fifth Provincial General Election in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was held on November 5, 2003, to elect the 58 members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan (MLAs). The election was called on October 8 by Premier Lorne Calvert.

Campaign

Going into the election, the popularity of the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan had declined because of controversy on a number of issues. Voters in this agrarian province were disgruntled because of a mediocre harvest and a disastrous summer for cattle producers - the American border had been closed to Canadian beef due to fears of mad cow disease. Election issues included outmigration (the province's population is falling because young people leave the province to look for work), privatization of public transit and energy supplies, and utility rates. During the campaign, the NDP was attacked for an internal cartoon that had been leaked to the media. It depicted Saskatchewan Party leader Elwin Hermanson loading NDP sympathizers onto rail cars. The cartoon referred to speculation that if elected, Hermanson would replace civil servants who were NDP supports with Saskatchewan Party supporters. Unlike many of the other provincial elections held in 2003, the election was widely regarded as too close to call up until a large proportion of the polls had reported. The NDP's fourth straight win, with a majority government no less, surprised observers, who believed the NDP would be affected by the poor pre-election conditions. All of its cabinet ministers were re-elected, except for two who had defected to the party from the Liberals. After Elwin Hermanson proved unable to lead his party to power, he resigned as leader on November 18, 2003. Although speculation was high that they could form the balance of power in the case of a minority government, the Liberals lost both of their seats.

Results

owspan="2"\|Party	rowspan="2"\|Party Leader	colspan="3"\|Popular Vote	rowspan="2"\|# nominated	colspan="3"\|Seats
lign="center"\|#	align="center"\|%	align="center"\|% Change	align="center"\|Previous	align="center"\|Elected	align="center"\|Change
New Democratic	Lorne Calvert	align="right"\|190,923	align="right"\|44.68	align="right"\|+5.95	align="right"\| 58	align="right"\|29	align="right"\| 30	align="right"\|+1
Saskatchewan Party	Elwin Hermanson	align="right"\|168,144	align="right"\|39.35	align="right"\|-0.26	align="right"\| 58	align="right"\|25	align="right"\| 28	align="right"\|+3
Liberal	David Karwacki	align="right"\|60,601	align="right"\|14.18	align="right"\|-5.97	align="right"\| 58	align="right"\|4	align="right"\|	align="right"\|4
Western Independence	Bruce Ritter	align="right"\|2,615	align="right"\|0.61	align="right"\|+0.61	align="right"\| 17	align="right"\|	align="right"\|	align="right"\|
New Green	Ben Webster	align="right"\|2,323	align="right"\|0.55	align="right"\|-0.46	align="right"\| 27	align="right"\|	align="right"\|	align="right"\|
colspan="2"\|Independent	align="right"\|1,997	align="right"\|0.47	align="right"\|+0.37	align="right"\| 5	align="right"\|	align="right"\|	align="right"\|
Progressive Conservative		align="right"\|681	align="right"\|0.16	align="right"\|-0.24	align="right"\| 11	align="right"\|	align="right"\|	align="right"\|
olspan="2"\| Total	align="right"\|427,284	align="right"\|100.00	align="right"\|	align="right"\| 234	align="right"\|58	align="right"\| 58	align="right"\|

Source: Elections Saskatchewan See also Canadian Politics in 2003.

External links

General resources

Legislature - Election 2003

Parties

Parties with seats in the house prior to dissolution

Saskatchewan New Democratics (see also New Democratic Party)
Saskatchewan Party
Liberal Party of Saskatchewan (see also Liberal Party of Canada)

Other parties

New Green Alliance Party of Saskatchewan