The final week of the provincial election race in the Northwest area saw the Saskatchewan Party bring in the premier to help them try to complete a sweep of the region.
Premier Brad Wall was the star attraction at a noon-hour luncheon put on by the Saskatchewan Party, held at the Tropical Inn on Thursday.
The event was hosted by the campaigns from Cut Knife-Turtleford, Rosthern-Shellbrook, Biggar and the Battlefords - but it was clearly the latter riding that the party had its focus on.
There was little doubt that Wall's visit was designed to help Herb Cox, in a fight to win the tight Battlefords constituency against NDP MLA Len Taylor and Liberal leader Ryan Bater. Clearly, though, the Saskatchewan Party is more concerned about Taylor, as Bater was ignored completely during Wall's speech to the packed ballroom.
"If you live here it is a choice between Herb Cox and Len Taylor," said Wall to the gathering. "I hope, I think, the people of this constituency are going to say 'we want a strong voice from Herb Cox on the Saskatchewan Party team', and that's worth fighting for over these next four days."
Wall later reiterated to reporters that North Battleford was a top target and while he admitted that Liberal vote splitting was a possibility, he reiterated that only Cox had a chance to stop Taylor.
"We're the only party that has a credible chance to beat the incumbent," said Wall to reporters.
The premier's speech did not feature any new policy announcements or campaign promises, as Wall repeated many of the same commitments heard earlier in the campaign, including the government's pledge to keep their commitment to a new Saskatchewan Hospital that was announced in August of this year.
Wall also repeated the party's policies on health care, potash, and government spending. He warned against relying heavily on potash revenues, saying the NDP was making spending announcements on the assumption that potash would rise. He raised the spectre that potash prices might collapse as they did in 2009.
The premier took particular aim at Taylor and at NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter over the opposition party's stance on the Northland Power project under construction east of North Battleford.
"During this campaign Mr. Lingenfelter attacked that project," said Wall. "He says it's privatization."
"We know the jobs it will create here, we know the capacity it will create here and we have a question today, I have a question today, for Mr. Taylor. Where does he stand on this project? It's good for this area. It's good for SaskPower, it'll help us keep rates down. It backs up wind power so we can do more renewable energy in the province, and Len Taylor's party is opposed to it and attacking it in this campaign. And I think prior to voting on Monday, people in this room and people across this riding deserve to know why the NDP is opposed to something that good for the Battlefords and area."
In speaking to reporters after his speech, Wall touched on another local issue in the Battlefords - the pending closure of the Maple Leaf Foods plant in North Battleford that was announced two weeks before.
Wall said the province would be working to help the workers displaced by the closure.
"We have a group of people within Advanced Education and Employment, when there's any layoffs or structural changes in an economy, they move into that community and work with employees to provide counseling, to provide some help where needed."
He said the move of Grit Industries to North Battleford will help offset it, plus they plan to work on the fundamentals of growing the economy. "I'm optimistic of the future of this area with or without Maple Leaf," said Wall. "We'll continue to see growth and job opportunity."
The premier also responded to reports circulating that First Nations chiefs in the province were thinking of forming their own political party in Saskatchewan. Onion Lake chief Wallace Fox posed the idea in speaking to reporters Wednesday at a meeting of Saskatoon Tribal Council.
It was "part of democracy," Wall said, for people to be able "to come together and form a party. So that's certainly up to Chief Fox and others who might be interested in doing that." However, he said his party had a track record on First Nations relations "that we're proud of."
Wall was joined at the noon-hour event by Cox and by the other area candidates Larry Doke from Cut Knife-Turtleford, Scott Moe from Rosthern-Shellbrook and Randy Weekes from Biggar. Also in the audience were cabinet ministers Jim Reiter, Bill Boyd, Don Morgan and Ken Cheveldayoff, along with several local dignitaries and supporters.
Soon after, the premier and others joined the Cox campaign in knocking on doors in the Battlefords for the remainder of the afternoon as the party tried to solidify their votes leading to election day on November 7th.
While the Saskatchewan Party event provided an impressive show of strength for the Herb Cox campaign in the final days, such was not the case for the competing Liberal campaign of Ryan Bater, hit by bad luck at the worst possible time.
The Liberals had boasted of momentum after the appearance of a big name, federal MP Ralph Goodale, in the riding the previous week to boost Bater's cause. They planned to follow up with another star attraction: federal MP Justin Trudeau, who was supposed to give a speech Thursday at John Paul II Collegiate in North Battleford and appear at a Liberal event in Saskatoon in the evening.
However, at the last minute Trudeau's entire trip to Saskatchewan was cancelled.
The Liberal campaign said the trip was scuttled due to a sudden vote in the House of Commons which Trudeau had to attend. Trudeau planned to appear at the events by Skype instead.
