‘A seat at the table’: Jeff Walters kicks off campaign to retake Liberal seat

For the past two federal elections, Saskatchewan has been a blue monolith, with every seat in the province going to the Conservative party.

But Jeff Walters hope to break that trend.

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He’s running for the Liberal party in Regina-Wascana, and officially kicked off his campaign on Monday. It’s not, however, the start of his conversations and engagement with the voters. Walters was acclaimed to run in the riding for the Liberals in November.

“If this was a couple months ago, we’d be having a very different conversation. Things have changed dramatically,” said Walters.

He said feelings have changed on the doorstep through the Liberal leadership race, which installed Mark Carney as the head the party and as prime minister.

“You could palpably actually see the optimism growing (during) the whole race for the leaders,” said Walters.

He said Saskatchewan had been focused on the “twin bogeymen” of the carbon tax and Justin Trudeau, but the new leader has people thinking about the good things the Liberals have done and what the party can do – Walters cited $10-a-day daycare, the child tax benefit, and the Housing Accelerator Fund, to name a few.

When asked about Justin Trudeau’s leadership, Walters said that a decade from now there might be a different perspective on what happened.

“Mistakes have been made, and I think that it’s probably best to just focus on the future, which is what is at hand anyway,” said Walters.

Walters is no stranger to politics. He’s currently an instructor at the University of Regina, but served as the leader of the provincial Liberal party from 2021 to 2023.

He’s running in the Regina-Wascana riding, which has voted for Conservative Michael Kram in the past two elections, but had previously been a stronghold for Liberal Ralph Goodale for 22 years.

“Remember Ralph Goodale, how much good he did as a sitting cabinet minister for Regina and Saskatchewan, and we need to get to that level once again,” said Walters, saying he believes the Conservatives and Liberals in the riding are neck and neck.

Walters said, if Saskatchewan wants to be heard in government, it needs to send someone to Ottawa who will be in government.

“If we do have a Liberal government, which is looking like it might well be, it’s best to have a seat at the table, and you’re not going to have a seat at the table by continuing to vote Conservative,” he said.

He said Western dissatisfaction stems from not having that voice.

The federal election is set to happen April 28.

Western alienation could be big issue in election

One political scientist believes a stronger feeling of western alienation could be on the horizon.

Jim Farney, director and professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina, said there is a lot of political discontent right now, and that there could be further dissatisfaction if the Liberals are re-elected over the Tories.

During an interview on the Evan Bray Show on Monday, Farney said that could lead to a resurgence of the same sentiment that led to the creation of the Reform Party in 1987.

Listen to the full interview with Farney:

“The dissatisfaction is deep, but unlike Reform, I think it is primarily concentrated in Saskatchewan and Alberta, not across the whole west. So yeah, rural Manitoba and bits of rural B.C. (too), but we’re really talking about a deep dissatisfaction with the two oil-producing provinces,” Farney said.

“That’s a massive challenge. We haven’t seen any of the splinter right-wing parties break through yet, but we were also seeing different styles of engagement from the provincial government.”

Farney said the discontent being felt in Saskatchewan and Alberta has caused him to have shifting concerns about a national unity crisis.

“Last summer I was worried about a Quebec-driven national unity crisis. I think it is fair to be worried about one coming from the prairies right now, because that dissatisfaction about the now and the worry about the future is very deep, and it’s very real,” he said.

–with files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink