The race to replace Brad Wall as leader of the Saskatchewan Party – and therefore Premier of the province – has begun.
As of Aug. 29, there’s five candidates running in the race: Tina Beaudry-Mellor, who was the social services minister; Ken Cheveldayoff, parks minister; Jeremy Harrison, economy minister; Alanna Koch, the Office of the Premier’s top bureaucrat; and Gordon Wyant, justice minister.
The leader will be selected in a race where all Saskatchewan Party members will be able to vote.
Yet it’s interesting to note the vote will have a feature that doesn’t show up in our regular elections: the person with the majority of the party’s approval will win, thanks to a preferential ballot where the members can rank who they want from most to least.
Meanwhile, us regular voters are stuck with a voting system where whoever gets the most votes, period, wins a seat. That system works well where there’s only two parties, but I’m afraid there’s more than two parties running in each election.
That means it’s possible that someone could win an election with something like 35 per cent of the vote, just as long as there’s enough candidates to split the vote in such a way that the 35-percenter collects the most points period.
If the Saskatchewan Party selected a leader like we elect MLAs, that would be grounds for dissension within the ranks, weakening the party to its opposition. That’s why they don’t choose their leader that way.
Why, then, should we select a MLA that way?
