Leader Close-up and Personal: Scott Moe

From even further back than the official start of the election campaign, Scott Moe has been letting voters know what his party and platform are all about, but now it’s time to let the voters know what he’s all about.

Moe spent a lot of his youth in the basement. He was a hockey player and said he went into the basement to practise his shot – his slapshot got particularly good.

“A lot of it came from coming home after school when I was five, seven, nine years old and just going into the basement with four cement walls and just shooting the puck at it until you wore the net out,” said Moe.

He joked that when you’re a slow skater, you have to be able to do something to earn your place on the team you want.

Moe also spent his early days cheering on the Edmonton Oilers (he remains a fan now). He said Shellbrook, where he grew up and still lives, is about the same distance to Edmonton as it is to Regina, so Moe would go to Edmonton once or twice a year to see the Oilers play.

Moe listed off some of the greats with the Oilers when he was a kid, including Wayne Gretzky.

Years since Gretzky last played, Moe said he got a call from “The Great One” out of the blue. Moe had texted a picture of the Stanley Cup when it was at the legislature to Kelly Chase, a Saskatchewan product who played in the WHL, NHL and is now the colour commentator with the St. Louis Blues.

Moe’s phone rang shortly after and he picked it up, thinking it was Chase.

“The voice on the other end said, ‘Oh, this isn’t Kelly, this is his assistant, Wayne Gretzky,’ ” Moe said.

Moe didn’t believe it at first, but Gretzky and Chase had been golfing when Chase got the picture.

“So I had a brief chat with Wayne Gretzky, I was absolutely speechless,” Moe said. “(I’ve) been waiting all my life to talk to him and he just phoned me up out of the blue because he happened to be with Kelly Chase.

“So that’s as close as I have gotten to the NHL and to playing with the Edmonton Oilers, was a phone call from The Great One.”

Moe isn’t spending every night shooting pucks these days, but he said he does make a point of getting out and walking with his wife or running around Wascana Lake – and he said he has been able to keep that up through the pandemic.

“I’ve been pretty good outside of maybe four-to-six weeks in the middle of the pandemic there where I just ran out of steam but we’re back at it again now and feel pretty good,” said Moe.

During the campaign, Moe said it has been a bit tough but he said it only works if you make a point of making time for it.

“You have to book out some time for yourself each and every day, whether it be for your physical self or your mental self,” Moe said. “And I find it really allows you to focus better. (It) allows you to just be a little sharper in everything you do.”

Moe has also been making of point of making time for his wife and him to cook together. He said he barbecues and they’ve been trying different chicken, salmon, trout and tuna recipes.

“We’ve had actually kind of a lot of fun with it, just making some different things that we haven’t had before,” said Moe.

The Sask. Party leader also likes spicy foods, even going so far as to grow his own hot peppers.

“Some jalapeno peppers, some cayennes this year and a few others. There’s actually nothing greater than going out in the morning and picking a pepper, then making yourself an omelette with a fresh pepper or something like that,” said Moe.

The campaign will be over as of Monday and Moe might be able to make a few more omelettes at home than he has been. This is the first election Moe has been through as leader of the party, but he said that doesn’t mean he’s any more nervous this time around.

“This is going to come down to the hands of exactly who it should, and that’s the people, collectively, across this province and they will choose a government,” Moe said. “We’ll be fine with what that choice is.”

Moe said he’s looking forward to the results with “cautious optimism.”