‘We’re there to serve them’: Service top of mind for Docherty as he exits legislature

Through the nearly 12 years of his tenure at the Legislative Building, Mark Docherty said serving the public was always his No. 1 priority.

“For MLAs, the people are your boss, the people (are) who you answer to. I’ve never lost sight of that,” Docherty said Wednesday, two days after announcing he was resigning his seat in the Legislative Assembly.

Service is the whole reason Docherty said he decided to get into politics in the first place. He’d already spent his life serving, working as a social worker, working with youths and families, and at treatment centres. He said he asked himself what the next step was and he decided to see if he could serve as a politician.

Docherty wasn’t expecting to win that first election in Regina Coronation Park in 2011.

“It’s been an amazing ride and it’s been an honour actually; there’s no other way to describe it,” he said. “I had no idea that I was going to get elected in 2011. That was a little bit of a surprise, actually putting your name forward and then winning, and then two more times.”

Docherty spent some time as the minister of parks, culture and sport, and then served as speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 2018 to 2020.

In that time, Docherty said he took on the role — and took it very seriously — of making sure that people, and newcomers to Canada especially, understood that the Legislature is their building and the politicians are there to represent them.

“Some of the people, some of the newcomers, their relationship in their former countries with politicians were seriously problematic and they would never actually see anybody that close. I took it upon myself to make sure that they understood that it’s different in Saskatchewan and Canada in general. It’s just different, and we were actually there to serve. We’re there to serve them,” said Docherty.

So he would tour people around the Legislature, he would be outside on the steps when people had their celebrations, events or flag-raisings, and he would go to events that he was invited to, sometimes even going to people’s homes.

Docherty remembers one instance where he was invited to a graduation ceremony at the Open Door Society in Regina and when he arrived they were taken aback that he was there by himself.

“They look at me and they said, ‘In our country, no politicians would ever, ever be without an entourage.’ They said, ‘Where are your soldiers?’ ” Docherty said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Soldiers?’ I go, ‘We don’t have soldiers.’ But that, that stuck with me.”

He said he’s grateful to the people of that riding for the last 11-plus years, calling them amazing.

Docherty said it seems like this is the time to step away from the MLA seat.

“I’ve done as much as I think I possibly could, but it’s also an opportunity for me to get back to my roots in terms of grassroot work in the community,” said Docherty.

He doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to do next but would like to be around working with youth and families. Docherty said he’s talked to a few CBOs and non-government organizations.

There will have to be a byelection called for the Regina Coronation Park seat within the next six months. It could be a tight race; before Docherty’s election in 2011, the seat was an NDP stronghold and each time Docherty was elected, it was a very close race.

Docherty didn’t want to speculate on what will happen in that byelection but said it’ll be fascinating.

“It’s always so tight, it’s always been tight, so it could go either way. There’s no other way to describe it,” said Docherty.