EAST CENTRAL — The Saskatchewan New Democrats’ new standard bearer for the Carrot River Valley constituency said the electoral district needs a stronger voice in the legislature.
Rod McCorriston was acclaimed by local New Democrats to be their candidate in the Oct. 26 provincial election through a nomination meeting held online on June 11.
Born and raised in Tisdale, McCorriston spent more than 20 years with the Department of Highways co-ordinating highway maintenance around Tisdale before moving to Regina to serve as the director of labour relations for the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union.
“I get a frontline view of a lot of the Sask. Party decisions and mismanagement that they've done over the years because of my role representing members who work for the government,” he said.
McCorriston said the closure to the Saskatchewan Transportation Company was an example of how the governing Saskatchewan Party hasn’t been listening to rural residents. It’s been harder for rural residents without vehicles to get to medical appointments in the cities, he said, and private enterprise has not picked up the slack.
“If they would have had a look and felt and talked to the rural citizens about something like that, that decision, I think, would have been altered,” he said.
McCorriston will face off against incumbent Saskatchewan Party MLA Fred Bradshaw in the provincial election.
The candidate said healthcare is the biggest issue facing the Carrot River Valley.
“I'm hearing from a lot of people that they're frustrated with the quality of care that they're receiving.”
McCorriston said there needs to be a stronger recruitment effort to bring medical professionals to the region.
“You might be able to perform some operations out in rural Saskatchewan, if you had proper professionals and I think you can do that by some recruitment and retention.”
Over the coming months, McCorriston and the New Democrats will be meeting voters and building a strong campaign in Carrot River Valley, which includes Tisdale, Nipawin, Carrot River and Hudson Bay.
“I just think that it's time that the constituents of Carrot River Valley have a legitimate choice in the upcoming election. I hope to provide them with the opportunity to make that choice,” he said.
“I'm quite excited about the things that the NDP is offering in their party plans. I think it provides people with a clear choice.”
Both McCorriston and NDP leader Ryan Meili painted the election as a choice between future Saskatchewan Party cuts or a people-focused post-pandemic recovery plan that includes increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, eliminating PST on construction labour, providing homeowners with financing to retrofit their homes with green technologies, and investing in rural cell phone and internet infrastructure.
“We've seen the Sask. Party in the past, when there were difficult times recently as 2017. Their first instinct is to cut: cut health care, cut education, cut key services and sell off crown corporations,” Meili said.
The NDP leader said he was pleased to have McCorriston on his team.
“It's really important to have somebody who's local to Carrot River Valley, was born and raised in Tisdale, has been really involved in this community, and also worked all over the area.”
The New Democrats have selected 38 out of 61 candidates for the provincial election, including ones for Kelvington-Wadena and Saskatchewan Rivers. Meili said someone has submitted papers to run in the Melfort constituency, while the party was talking to people to run in Humboldt-Watrous.
