Last night, the Saskatchewan Party’s Nancy Hepner won the by-election for the constituency of Martensville. The seat was vacated by the death of her father, Ben Hepner in September 2006. I thought I would post some interesting numbers on the event.
77.3% – The percentage of popular vote for Nancy Hepner, the largest vote percentage ever received by a Sask Party candidate.
10.5% – The percentage of popular vote for John (sacrificial lamb) Tzupa, the lowest vote percentage ever received for any CCF/NDP candidate in Saskatchewan since 1944.
7.7% – The percentage of popular vote for the Saskatchewan Liberal Party.
15% – The percentage of popular vote needed to have your deposit returned, and for the ability to write off 60% of your election spending.
6 – The number of parties that are not getting their deposits back, including the NDP, the Liberals and the Marijuana Party.
38% – Increase in percentage of popular vote for the Saskatchewan Party
61% – Decrease in percentage of popular vote for the NDP
11/05/2008 – Last possible date NDP Premier Lorne Calvert can call a provincial election, which represents five years from the date of their last victory in 2003.
$5 billion – Premier Calvert’s announcement this morning to be spent over the next 10 years on creating super highway economic corridors, to deflect media attention from the drubbing last night in Martensville
Cynical comment on Calvert’s announcement, but then I am a cynic so I wholehearteadly agree with your assessment of the timing. It’s not like they didn’t know they were going to get their butt handed to them, and obviously had the time to prepare for the inevitable. There only concern was to beat the Liberals and maybe get their expenses covered. As a former long time Martensville resident, it comes as no surprise they lost. There is a definite surprise on the extent of the beating. I believe the fringe parties held or increaded their vote in the riding, yet the NDP slipped considerably. The surprise is that this riding has morphed from a large rural component to the opposite with redistribution and the growth of bedroom commmunities like Martensville, Warman etc. It is now decidedly urban in makeup, and really is almost a Saskatoon riding. Most people in the communities live there and work in Saskatoon, and most have moved from Saskatoon to these areas. This demographic has really got to concern Calvert as Saskatoon will likely be the main battleground for the next election. A swing of even a couple of seats there would toss them out, and the Sask Party believes they can do it.
Well done! Anything, anything to get rid of mendacious Calvert.
Semi-related, are the Libs already hanging Steffi out to dry? Is a putsch in the works?
http://www.thiscanada.com/2007/03/06/flipper-retiring/
Did the Greens have a candidate running, if so, where was their 13%, according to the polls. May still hasn’t decided where to run, and I really don’t see a great demand from any of the 308 ridings to get her to run in any of them.
the ndp smear campaign should begin very soon. calvert is in a world of trouble and just doesn’t get it. at christmas time i was driving to kindersley and was counting the alberta license plates…people returning to their origins. out of 180 plates 161 were from alberta roughly 89 percent….the rest were from sask. the faces in the alberta vehicles were mostly young people with families and the sask vehicles were the tradtional “blue hairs”. we have lost another generation of our youth to the west, our best and brightest..the inovators…the dreamers.
they will not return to this province until the ndp government is kicked to the curb for a significant period….. my son leaves for fort mac again today.
I have known Nancy for about 30years. She is a fantastic person and an excellent communicator. She is wonderful addition to the Sask party, I think it is fair to say that things are looking very good for the them based on these results.
It was a nice win. Can’t wait for the leader’s dinner on Tuesday, Brad Wall always gets me reved up!
At last I have found a conservative blogger commenting on this story!!
Whilst I am from ottawa and have only known Nancy for approx three years I can say that the people of Martinsville will be very well served withtheir new representative. Nancy is an honest, hardworking and such a genuine woman that if this is the caliabre of candidates that the SP is recruiting then their days in opposition will be short in number.
Good for Nancy! One step at a time and soon you can send the Calvert socialist packing..
BTW – Mr. Mememememememe is seeking attention yet again!
url>http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php
7.7% for lieberals?
a staggering amount considering dionnnnn’s use of the tried and tested trick of pitting east against west…. who tf in saskaloonyland votes for those hoodlums?
Thought it kind of funny that the CTV online article gives 2003 results, but not 2007’s.
maryt – not to put to fine a point on it but since this was a provincial by election and May is the leader of the federal Green Party the 13% is not really relevant. What is though is that the Sask. Party won what was a very safe seat very handily. I am not sure you can extrapolate this result across the entire province but it does not bode well for Calvert and company.
when some one posts numbers like 77.3% it confuses me, did they cut a person up, or is there actually more than a hundred peeps in saskabush????
Is it possible that we’re witnessing a move to the right by Canadians. In a talk by writer and economic futurist; Harry Dent, he allowed that his children were much more conservative than the parent generation. That was 12 years ago.
The CPC is above the Liberals in the polls and Dion is in panic mode.
It could be too much to hope for. Is the extremism of the Left wearing thin on the younger set?
kevink: May is attempting to put her showing in the Ont by-election as evidence there is growing support for her party. Still don’t think cds are ready for a party that has its headquarters in Europe. That fact seems to be ignored by the media. Glad to see the SP win. Alberta started the Reform and look where it ended up. Sask is trying to change politics. Too bad the GTA is too stuck on stupid to start a non liberal party. The msm in the US is starting to debunk Gore, and Suzuki is also being exposed as a fraud. Guess Bush and Harper saying they support Kyoto is enough to get the media to be against it. How are the conservatives doing in Sask, and will Goodale be re-elected. Another big lib not running, Andy Scott is stepping down. Not only does dion have to find 108 women, seems he has to find several men as well.
Gunney99: A very interesting question regarding a move to the right by Canadians. I really think you are onto something. I am still in my 20’s and remember as a kid arguing with my parents against their leftist ways. They have since grown tired of the Dippers running this province into the ground and have seen the light.
I can’t be the only kid in such a situation. I recall a lot of conversations in my teens with others who felt the same way. Of course we were too young to vote.
But there’s a new crop of voters in every election – mayber there’s hope!
Right now on Newstalk Radio’s website is the following poll:
News Poll
Is Monday Night’s Byelection Win For The Sask Party A sign Of Things To Come?
Yes- The winds of change are blowing
68.14%
No – It was a byelection
31.86%
You can go to http://www.newstalk980.com to voice your opinion.
I was checking the Leader Posts site today and found it odd the results weren’t posted there. At least the CBC site had them right at the top.
I used to live in Martensville many moons ago. (I helped on Ray Hnatyshyn’s first foray into politics) and there are a lot of nice people in that town. Way to go Martensville and don’t send Calvert to Alberta when you kick him out of office.
Way to go Sask Party….it will be the BEST thing to happen to Saskatchewan when we get rid of the NDP….we deserve better…businesses do not like to do business when we have such a backward Govt as the NDP…
There are many people in Calgary (Sask. largest city!) just waiting until the NDP leave so they can cash in their paper gains in the real estate market and move back home. Hopefully the Sask. Party gets in before the residential real estate market in Calgary tanks like it currently is in the US.
I remember hearing 16-18 yr olds arguing politics with their parents etc and saying, when we take over we will not allow any group or party to pull that crap on us. These kids are now in their mid 20s and just starting to vote. Watch out libs, ndp, and other fringe parties. They may flirt with the green for a while, but will never give them power.
The result in Martensville is what the NDP have to look forward to, should Lorne Calvert ever screw up the courage to call a general election.
It’s interesting that Lorne Calvert is willing to cough up the billions in provincial money for anything after this excellent loss. I think Lorne could promise the moon right now and it wouldn’t make a big difference in the next campaign.
It is so easy to promise this, when you’re certain you won’t have to deliver.
…economic superhighway?
Does that mean we don’t have to go through that town between Regina and Saskatoon?
Davidson? Crap, been years, can’t remember the name, just wondering who was the brain child on a major highway not to bypass the town.
yo Lorne!! What do you want? A quick death or one from a thousand cuts? Call the damn election already.
Chamberlain
Jim:
Funny comments but I don’t think you are going to see a rush to move back to Saskabush. I love the fact that I was born there and spent my formative years there and still have great high school friends etc there. I just can’t imagine moving to a province that may give the Sask Party power in 1 election but then the NDP’rs seem to sneak right back in and screw the province up royally for another 10 years and then you hear the bitchin’ about what happened.
Lost Faith but…
GO RIDERS
Jim in Calgary. You just stay right there. Don’t need you, don’t want you. We just want those who believe that that we can and will do better. Jim, you just stay where you are paying those high prices for absolutely every good and service you access. You just stay where you are in the midst of high crime, traffic jams, pollution and awesomely “friendly” neighbors.
We just want two things: 1. Our young to stay here, and 2. those who still believe that Saskatchewan will achieve its potential under a different government to come back. The latter obviously does not include you, Jim in Calgary.
adB: Sorry you feel that way and I am more than willing to give Sask. my support,(actually in more ways than you think). Sometimes you have to leave through no choice of your own (transfer) and realize the different mindset in Cowtown. No intention to offend yourself or my beloved province of birth. My company is looking at investing a good deal of money in Sask. and LEAVING the majority of it in the province. I would venture to suggest that some of the people we would employ, should they be not be local, would enjoy their location and choose to put down roots. If so, good on them. And if you send Calvert here we are STILL sending him back!
Jim (from Saskatoon) in Calgary
different Bob: The stories I’m hearing; Sask. is in for a Boom time. Manitobans are going to their neighbor’s for work. There are opal discoveries. A old oil field has been re-discovered in the South East. There is uranium which will likely be the “black gold” of the future. The future is in Saskatchewan!
Lets hope for a Saskatchewan Party government that is the rival of the rest of Canada in innovation and good solid economic principals.
Attn. ‘a different Bob’ or would that be Boob?
may I suggest that you treat yourself to a short vacation, if you will, not far, just too, say – LLoydminster. Check on the way in, the development on the Saskatchewan side and then as you exit the Peoples’ Republic and gain entrance to the land of freedom – Alberta.
I’m sure you will be stunned (further stunned??) by the magnitude of the development. This, in and of itself, is symbolic of the divergent attitudes between the two provinces.
I exercised my freedom decades ago, and every time I return, the roads remind me why I left.
Regards
CRB
CRB:
Lets cut adB some slack here. If the Sask Party can win the election, do what needs doin’ without screwing up, maybe, just maybe, they can get what should be a beautiful and vibrant province back on track. Perhaps even the dippers will realize…sorry wishful thinking on my part. Go to hell dippers!
I get kind of pissed about the Chamberlain comments. There was no where to put the second road at the time. There was a rail line on one side and a valley on the other side. There is the possibility of squeezing 4 lanes there now, but this was not true until recently. The elevators were more important in the past, so there was a lot of traffic crossing the road. Also there is a highway intersection at one end of town. Expensive engineering is the reason we go down to 2 lanes. Sorry no conspiracy and no political deals.
…yeah Chamberlain. Does one still have to go through that bump on the log highway stop?
tom…
You mean to tell me in all of Sask there is no where to put a road around Chamberlain?
That’s almost as funny as making a ski hill out of a garbage dump and call it a mountain.
Umm, hold that thought…
Stubby, youre so full of crap..losing our best and brightest. I guess that would mean you’re part of the weak gene pool! Haha!
If you’ve known Nancy for 30 years, and the SP says their candidate is young, I’ll eat my shorts.
Drive around Chamberlain already.
**Jim in Calgary!! I hope you and your gay-bashing, red neck conservatives go to hell or get into a car accident driving back to Sask.
This thing about left or right does not qualify. The choice is clearly between Diktat and freedom.
See the Chase comment, isn’t he/she just an excellent example of a person in need of attention, looks like case for a dose of reality. Been down so long, seems like up to him/her.
Chase,
I now live near Edmonton. My next door neighbour is from my home town. I ran into the sister of an old friend who I went to school with back in the days. There are almost more green and white than green and gold at the Stinkimos home games when the Riders come to town.
I can almost guarantee that if you asked 5 people in a room where they are from, at least one will say Saskatchewan.
There are many, many stubble jumpers walking amongst the people of Edmonton. Like it or not, they left to come to greener pastures (i.e. find work, get ahead in life).
My grandfather used to tell me that when he was a young man, the CCF promised that Saskatchewan would have such a large population, that it wouldn’t be able to feed them all (that was when they started opening up the potash mines).
Potash, uranium, oil, agriculture, oil sands, just to name a few and they couldn’t manage themselves out of a wet paper bag. The NDP is old, tired and without any type of vision, except to keep the province unionized and to threaten at every election how the boogyman (the opposition) would take away everyone’s public auto insurance, telephones and powerlines.
Saskatchewan is dying (check the population stats). And if that isn’t enough, just take a drive through the province. The roads are terrible and every little town has (or is) drying up and blowing away.
Quite sad, but until that government gets thrown out…
Ed the Hun
last time i checked, Saskatoon and Regina are number 1 and 2 in crime capitals in Canada, car insurance in alberta is not much different than here unless you have many accidents and tickets, gass is less expensive in Alberta by about 8 cents a litre, wages are higher by a long shot in Alberta, property taxes are way less in Alberta than in good old saskabush, groceries in alberta are about the same, you are right on one thing Bob, traffic jams have been eleminated in Saskatoon on Circle Drive (half circle), one can’t drive downtown saskatoon for 3 bolcks without stopping at 2 red lights, must be the Ukrainian’s running city hall. so as you can see good old Saskatchewah has one thing Alberta does not ROTTEN, NO GOOD FOR NOTHING NDP GOVERNMENT
My, my, people are certainly cynical about Premier Calvert’s motives for choosing today to announce his latest Grand Plan. It’s all coincidence you know; the Higher Purpose People who run the NDP are surely above such venal political calculation. Surely it’s also a coincidence that I found not one but two copies of a good news newsletter from my local MLA, a Mr. Peter Prebble, who despite his improbable name appears to be an actual person, sitting in my mailbox this morning. It must also be a coincidence that the NDP has been spending record amounts of money in the past year, the third year of its current mandate, and undoubtedly also a coincidence that (insert your favorite example/examples here)…. Come on people, cynicism is just a poor cousin of paranoia, and you wouldn’t want to go there, would you?
chase: you sound like a member of the wheatboard mob…..NO CHANGE EVER.(hide the books too). i think that your wishing of people to get in an accident is a little much. our chances of a wreck is higher in sask because we have to dodge the pot holes.
Chase, start eating your shorts, I have known Nancy since she was in diapers.
We just want two things: 1. Our young to stay here, and 2. those who still believe that Saskatchewan will achieve its potential under a different government to come back.
The Backward Province has been backward for 60 years. It will take another 60 years of free enterprise friendly environment before investers will believe it a safe place to invest.
The proof is in those who vote with their feet.
Sask. will remain a nothing province. Probably a good thing. It provides a living example of the destruction socialism wreaks.
ol hoss,
There are a few of us out here that choose to stick it out. As a matter of fact, you have many world class people in all fields that hail from Saskatchewan, including the originator of this blog, that are better because we have had to overcome the devastating effects of 60+ years of socialist governments.
Saskatchewan is just starting to roar. All political movements began at one point in history to replace what were referred to as “irreplacable” political structures. The CCF took root here in 1944.
It’s now the Saskatchewan Party’s turn.
You naysayers can say what you will. Saskatchewan is one of the best places in the world to live, despite our backwards government. Once we get rid of them, this place will be as attractive as anywhere in the world.
And the people that chose to stick it out will prosper, because already we had done very well against a very bad social experiment.
As they used to say, “will the last person leaving Saskatchewan turn off the lights”. I say when the last person in Alberta can’t afford the light bill, come on home…
I say when the last person in Alberta can’t afford the light bill, come on home…
Big Daddy SaskPower won’t save you. Although your statement is a typical socialist statement implying that free enterprise is, somehow, more costly than state supplied sservices.
Exactly why Sask. will remain a nothing province, Sask Party, or no.
“Martensville – By the Numbers”
Shows how out of it I was…when I saw this post title, I figured it was Brier coverage.
“Martensville – By the Numbers”
Shows how out of it I was…when I saw this post title, I figured it was Brier coverage.
ol hoss,
Me? A Socialist?
Obviously you cannot read or even understand the nuance of my post.
‘Nuff said….
Obviously you cannot read or even understand the nuance of my post.
Beating around the bush, where you? Subtle socialism is still socialism.