Rural Saskatchewan again came through for the Saskatchewan Party in a big way, with the Northwest proving to be a bedrock.
The Northwest produced a total Saskatchewan Party sweep of the region. All incumbent Sask. Party MLAs easily returned to the legislature, racking up massive margins of victory in the election Monday.
For all the opposition parties, it was a colossal defeat. No opposition candidates came close to winning anywhere in the region.
A result that typified what transpired in the region Monday was the victory of Larry Doke in Cut Knife-Turtleford.
His margin of victory was simply overwhelming. Doke swamped NDP candidate and former News-Optimistcolumnist Danica Lorer by 5,710 votes to 950, a difference of 4,760 votes.
In terms of vote percentage, Doke received 79.9 per cent.
Liberal Rod Gopher received 252, PC candidate Rick Cline got 147 and Green Party candidate Tammy Fairley Saunders received 90.
Biggar-Saskatchewan Valley was a similar story as longtime incumbent Randy Weekes took the riding with 76 per cent of the vote.
Weekes received 5,928 votes compared to 1,436 for Dan Richert of the NDP, 220 for Faiza Kanwal of the Liberals and 161 for Ryan Lamarche of the Green Party.
Another big win was recorded in Rosthern-Shellbrook by incumbent minister of Advanced Education Scott Moe.
Moe, who was dogged by controversy early in the campaign after he was identified as one of five candidates in the province with DUI convictions in his past, nevertheless had an easy time winning re-election with a share of 71 per cent of the vote.
Moe received 4,689 votes to 1,278 for Rose Freeman of the NDP. Orrin Greyeyes of the Liberals received 462 and Jade Duckett of the Green Party, 119.
While these were impressive numbers for the Saskatchewan Party, results from the usually-competitive riding of Lloydminster were nothing short of a landslide.
The Saskatchewan Party incumbent Colleen Young won by a 3,930 vote margin with a whopping 86 per cent share of the vote.
The result was notable for the area as Lloydminster has seen close contests in the past. It was a riding that the Saskatchewan Party had barely won in 2003, but since then the margins of victory have grown considerably. Young took 64 per cent of the vote in a byelection in 2014.
Other results in the region saw incumbent Jeremy Harrison win by 2,898 votes in Meadow Lake, while the veteran Bill Boyd was returned in Kindersley by 3,503 votes.
Boyd’s win was noteable as he had faced a challenge from an independent candidate, former MLA Jason Dearborn.
Dearborn did manage a second-place finish but was still well short of winning, taking 1,241 votes to 4,744 for Boyd.
