Doreen Eagles’ final day in the Saskatchewan Legislature was a “bitter-sweet” occasion.
The veteran Estevan MLA, who has been representing the constituency for the Saskatchewan Party since 1999, had her final day in the legislature on Thursday. She is one of 10 MLAs who won’t be seeking another term in next spring’s provincial election.
“I walked up those steps yesterday morning, and I thought ‘This is the last time I’ll walk up those steps to go to a session,’” Eagles told the Mercury on Friday afternoon. “And then you sit around the caucus table with all your colleagues, and you hope to keep in touch with them.”
She also realized it was the last time she would sit in her chair in the legislature.
Each retiring MLA, including Eagles, was given the opportunity to deliver a five-minute farewell speech. Eagles thanked her family, the voters, the people who worked at her constituency office, her constituency executive and the late Doug Turnbull who pushed her to run for the first time in 1998.
She also used her speech to recap some of the things that happened in the Estevan constituency during her tenure: the construction of the Saskatchewan Energy Training Institute, the completion of the truck bypass north of Estevan, the pending start-up of the CT scanner at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and the opening of the carbon capture and storage project at the Boundary Dam Power Station.
“There has been some controversy over that, but … it is capturing carbon, and once we get the bugs worked out, it’s going to do everything it was supposed to do,” said Eagles.
She is also pleased to see changes made to the education portion of property tax, and the arrival of the STARS Air Ambulance in Saskatchewan – a service she believes was much needed for the province.
Eagles won a contested nomination in the fall of 1998 to be the Sask. Party’s candidate, and she was elected as the riding’s MLA in 1999. She garnered 3,577 votes, or 46.88 per cent of the popular vote, to defeat Neil Collins of the Saskatchewan Liberals, incumbent MLA Larry Ward of the New Democratic Party and Sigfredo Gonzalez of the New Green Alliance.
“The response we got was great, but you still don’t know for sure what’s going to happen,” said Eagles.
Her margin of support grew to 3,509 votes (51.36 per cent) in 2003, 4,703 votes (66.18 per cent) in 2007 and 4,796 votes (79.24 per cent) in 2011.
She announced in December of last year that this term in the legislature would be her last.
“I thought about retiring for a couple years, and I just decided it was the right time,” said Eagles.
Eagles loved her job, and she viewed it as an honour, but she has other things she wants to do now.
She will remain Estevan’s MLA until the next provincial election, which is slated for Apr. 4, 2016.
