Beck taking off on provincial tour following NDP leadership victory

Newly elected Sask. NDP leader Carla Beck is getting ready to head out on the road and try to garner support from the people of Saskatchewan.

“Tomorrow, we start our three-week tour that will take us to every corner of this province,” Beck explained. “We’ll be meeting with folks in their places of work, community, sharing their stories and a vision of Saskatchewan that works for all of us.”

Beck’s tour isn’t new for the NDP.

Her predecessors have done the same thing after they were elected party leader. Those tours didn’t result in much for the NDP in elections and the party has kept fairly consistent seat numbers in the legislative assembly.

Beck feels her tour will be different from ones in the past.

“This is so clear to me (that) people are listening in a way that they weren’t listening in 2020. They’re ready, they’re looking for change. I think our job is to get out there, make those connections and show them that we’re inviting them in and that we’re the alternative to the Sask Party,” she said.

“A lot of people think this province is going in the wrong direction. We’re going to get out there and talk directly to (people) and into rooms we haven’t been in in a long time.”

While the people in those rooms may not be NDP fnas, Beck said she and her party are ready to listen and ready to work for them.

“There isn’t a room in this province that we’re scared to get into. We will hold our heads high, we know the values we’re sharing, we know Saskatchewan people share those values and there are a lot of people out there looking for an alternative,” she said.

“There are too many people in the province where the only thing they know about the Saskatchewan NDP are the things that the Sask Party has told them. It is time we get out there and tell our own story, make those connections and I’ve seen it work. We’re asking people to give us another look.”

Beck suggests there is more hope this time around after people watched how the Sask Party handled the COVID-19 pandemic the past two years.

“There is something here that wasn’t here in 2020 and we want to keep building.”

Beck became party leader Sunday after she defeated Kaitlyn Harvey with 68 per cent of the vote.