Larry Doke is all set for his re-election bid in the Cut Knife-Turtleford constituency.
The Saskatchewan Party MLA was not opposed in his bid for re-nomination. He was officially acclaimed at the nomination meeting held April 10 at the Meota Community Complex, before a sizable audience of about 70 party members.
For Doke, the nomination process was a far less stressful process compared to 2010. In that year, Doke defeated two others in a hard-fought contest to replace retiring MLA Michael Chisholm - a race that spanned a number of months.
"Last time was a lot of work," said Doke, and waiting for the results "you have that knot in your stomach."
"This time, once the nominations opened up you still have that knot in your stomach wondering if anyone's going to put papers in. Fortunately, nobody else put in, so I'm quite happy."
He is the fourth candidate to be officially nominated by the Saskatchewan Party, who have started their nomination process in advance of a provincial election campaign expected to take place in the spring of 2016.
The process began with the re-nomination of Premier Brad Wall in his riding of Swift Current, followed by Prince Albert Northcote and Regina Walsh Acres.
More nomination meetings followed Friday night, April 11, which included another Northwest-area riding, Biggar-Saskatchewan Valley, where cabinet minister Randy Weekes was re-nominated to run for another term. That riding borders Cut Knife-Turtleford to the southeast.
Another neighboring MLA, Tim McMillan from Lloydminster, was the guest speaker at the nomination meeting Thursday. He serves with Doke on Treasury Board in the legislature.
McMillan, minister responsible for energy and resources, talked about the strong economic growth in the province and about issues facing potash and the oil and gas sectors in particular.
He reiterated his party's support for efforts to get more pipelines built, referring specifically to the Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway pipelines.
McMillan said pipelines have run into a "political problem, not a technical problem or an engineering problem." As for Keystone XL, still waiting for approval from U.S. President Barack Obama, McMillan noted the project has become "so politicized, it's hard to say which way it's going to go."
Doke appears he is taking nothing for granted in a riding that has been a reliable Saskatchewan Party seat for several years.
He said he intends to begin forming a campaign team to fight the next election.
An early challenge will be adjusting to the new set of constituency boundaries that are taking effect in Cut Knife-Turtleford and across the province.
While much of the old riding will be included in the new boundaries, there will be some significant changes to the north, east and south portions of the riding. The town of Glaslyn and four area First Nations - Moosomin, Saulteaux, Mosquito and Red Pheasant - will be leaving the constituency.
However, an area that includes the towns of Unity and Wilkie is being added. Unity is currently part of the Kindersley constituency while Wilkie is in the Biggar constituency.
The riding is significantly larger.
It's a "huge area that we're going to be covering," Doke said, who noted the riding will now extend from Turtleford to the Unity-Wilkie areas.
Doke plans to start work to get himself known in the new parts of the constituency. The plan is to include the new towns in a door-to-door campaign to meet voters.
"We'll have a strategy where we're going to be in those communities once a week, whether it's Lashburn or Maidstone, Unity, Wilkie, but we're going to start the process now."
While the campaign ahead was the focus of Thursday's meeting, Doke also continues to be focused on the issues facing his riding.
One issue is a number of area roads in need of major upgrades. One of those is Highway 4, long seen as a safety issue.
Doke notes Highway 4 north is in decent condition surface-wise, but the problem is the highway is difficult for traffic to pass on.
"The unfortunate thing with that highway is it's very up and down," said Doke. "There's as much solid line as there is broken line so passing becomes an issue."
He has been working, he said, to "convince the (highways) ministry that passing lanes are needed on that highway." Mayors in the area have also been lobbying for passing lanes.
Doke said summer traffic as well as the truck traffic attracted to five inland terminals next to Highway 4 north of North Battleford create a high use corridor. Another concern is Highway 26, expected to see heavier truck traffic due to the arrival of a new Husky thermal energy project at Edam and Vawn.
That project is good news for Doke's riding with the arrival of some 400 jobs and 20-30 permanent jobs. But it also creates challenges in handling the expected traffic to move the oil, and Doke expects the resort communities will be busy handling the influx of people.
"We want to be proactive and that we're ready for it," said Doke.
It appears some progress has been made on the road issue.
Doke said a meeting is being set up with the minister of Highways and their officials. A specific date has not been nailed down, but Doke expects it to happen sometime early in May.
The meeting would include officials from the towns and resort villages. Mayor Ian Hamilton of North Battleford will also be included, said Doke.
"All the mayors up the line here, we're going to meet together and we're going to talk about this. What I'm hearing so far, things are favorable and it is being recognized as a safety issue."
