Perhaps it’s only fitting, given the nature of Saskatchewan.
When people came to this place even before we become a province more than 110 years ago, it wasn’t to build great cities.
Nor did First Nations people who were here centuries before have any interest in grouping together in grand urbanized centres.
People came here because of what the land, itself, had to offer.
Because of that, rural areas have always held special importance to this place.
Sure, Saskatchewan now has fine cities — both bigger and smaller ones. They have become our centres of commerce, culture and — to a large extent — economic activity.
Moreover, the fundamental principle of democracy is one person-one vote. In today’s Saskatchewan, that means the majority of the votes will now come from what we classify as our 16 cities.
But it might be as important to know that half the people do not live in what we consider the major cities of Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert. The rest of the province lives on farms or in hamlets, villages, towns and the smaller cities all still heavily influenced by rural life.
So in that vein, it is equally important to recognize just how important the rural Saskatchewan vote will be the outcome of the 2016 vote.
The Saskatchewan legislature will increase to 61 seats for the coming April 4 vote from the current 58 seats. The three additional seats will all be urban-based — basically, two more in Saskatoon and one more in Regina.
Currently, there are 12 seats in Saskatoon, 11 in Regina, two in each Moose Jaw and Prince Albert, two in northern Saskatchewan.
However, while their boundaries will change, Saskatchewan will still have is 29 “rural seats” that we have right now.
This change was not without considerable controversy. Obviously, the need for three more MLAs in the legislature is highly questionable.
And as obviously, the only feasible way that the Saskatchewan Party could justify maintaining the current number of rural seats — all of which it holds — was to increase the total number of seats.
Politically speaking, this will make an already difficult situation for the NDP and leader Cam Broten (whose party does not have any seats) still rather difficult.
“It’s no secret that in certain rural ridings we have a lot of work to do,” Broten said in a year-end interview with PostMedia news. “But if you look at our cities, our medium-sized cities and some rural constituencies along the forest fringe, these are places where they haven’t necessarily felt the benefits of what has happened in the province.”
In other words, if rural Saskatchewan is satisfied with what it has gotten from the Wall government — and all indicators suggest this is the case — it can do what it did in the 2011 vote and dictate the 2016 results.
However, rural Saskatchewan voters also have the power to send the Sask. Party government whatever message it deems appropriate by electing however many rural NDP MLAs it sees fit.
Notwithstanding the recent economic downturn, Saskatchewan’s population has grown to an all-time high of 1,138,879. Most of that growth continues to be in the cities, as a downturn in the oil sector means more Saskatchewan people are headed to Alberta than the other way around.
But rural Saskatchewan will continues to have a major impact how we should be governed … as the province’s history dictates should be the case.
Finally, a belated Merry Christmas to Moosomin MLA Don Toth — the former speaker and longest-serving MLA who is also retiring.
Toth was regretfully left off last week’s list of retirees, but he certainly won’t be forgotten for his gentlemanly good nature and fine service to Saskatchewan people.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
