The provincial election is in November of next year, and pieces of the puzzle are falling into place for the upcoming campaign. Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit has announced that he has been nominated and will seek a second term.
Ottenbreit says that when he was seeking a nomination for the 2007 election, he was inspired by the policy direction and leadership that Premier Brad Wall brought to the party. He notes that many of the policy ideas brought forth in 2007 have been carried through, and he believes Saskatchewan is moving right direction.
"The plan is to continue on the same route. To see what is going to serve the people the best and develop policies and a platform that will serve that," Ottenbreit says.
The first term has had a steep learning curve and several challenges, Ottenbreit admits, but he notes that overall the province has been doing well.
"The province has fared very well compared to the rest of the country and even the world. Not completely because of the government, but a lot of the policies we put in place have helped," Ottenbreit says.
One luxury afforded to Ottenbreit in his second election will be experience. He notes that he has a comfort level with policy and the direction of the government that is only possible through being involved in the legislature.
"It's a bit less to learn because I'm involved totally at this point, whereas the first time being nominated you don't really have the knowledge base to serve you a bit more confidently," Ottenbreit recalls.
He also credits experience as being the Saskatchewan Party's main asset during next year's election, and believes the government record is one which can be built on.
"Before, we said what we wanted to do, and we've delivered on that in the past few years. We've developed a reputation, we've developed relationships, and going into the election we can show that this is what we have done and this is what we will continue to do. We're going in with a record we can be proud of, and a leader who was unproven before but has gone above and beyond any expectations even his colleagues have had," Ottenbreit explains.
One of the biggest benefits to that leadership is Saskatchewan's higher profile, Ottenbreit says.
"Saskatchewan at one point was hard to pronounce and people didn't even know where it was... Now, you have people in many other countries knowing exactly where we are and what we have to offer," Ottenbreit says.
One difficulty that Ottenbreit sees in the upcoming year is the provincial NDP being on the attack. He believes that the Saskatchewan Party is going to have to prepare for attack ads and negative advertising.
"I've always said that fear is an amazing motivator, and misinformation and half-truths are amazing developers of fear," Ottenbreit says.
The conduct of the opposition under leader Dwain Lingenfelter has been combative and disruptive, Ottenbreit says, and he is prepared for it to escalate over the coming year as the election gets closer. While he finds the conduct frustrating, Ottenbreit sees his party continuing to focus on the positive aspects in their campaign and their conduct.
"I think the people of the province are tired of that, and most people are tired of the old-style dirty politics and dirty campaign tactics, and that's one thing we have tried to stay away from and will continue to stay from," Ottenbreit says.
