SASK VOTES 2024: Meet the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party

The debate stage brings up familiar feelings for Rose Buscholl, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan.

“I have done some acting in the past,” she said. “I have done a couple commercials. A friend of mine, he did a couple of movies that I ended up playing a couple of roles in.”

Buscholl was also an extra in one of Canadian country singer Shane Yellowbird’s music videos many years ago, but said she can’t remember which one.

“I’m going to be honest, I don’t listen to country music,” the party leader said with a laugh.

In addition to her acting career, Buscholl has spent many years working as a first responder and volunteer firefighter, which she said helped equip her with the skills to be a leader.

“Honestly, I am the person who will listen,” Buscholl said. “I have had a career of listening to people.”

The party’s campaign platform focuses on key issues like health care, affordability and education, which Buscholl said are major concerns she has heard about from voters.

“People don’t trust the government; I don’t blame them,” she said. “I don’t trust the government. This is why I am running again.”

Weeks before the election began, Buscholl’s party ruled out a prospective merger with the Buffalo Party due to differing agendas. She said her party has 13 candidates running for the in the provincial election.

Buscholl lives in Colonsay, about 70 kilometres east of Saskatoon, with her partner. She has three kids.

Politics was often the source of heated discussions with Buscholl’s father, she said.

“He even told me ‘don’t ever become a politician,’ and look where I am right now,” she said. “Sorry, Dad!”

Buscholl entered the political world by serving as a councillor in the RM of Colonsay before moving to provincial politics as a candidate in 2015. In 2022, she became interim leader of the PC party before becoming its leader in 2023.

With the 2016 and 2020 elections under her belt as a candidate, she said her first election as a leader has been much busier.

“I would like to see at least a few of our candidates in the Leg,” she said. “I would like it where we could have that balance of power so, come 2028, we can form government.”

Buscholl said her party is aiming to put more staff in hospitals and retain them over the long term.

“If you don’t have staff to run them and don’t have doctors and nurses in place, these hospitals are nothing more than buildings that are going to be on constant bypass,” she said.

The PCs hope to increase health-care seats in universities, with spots guaranteed specifically for Saskatchewan residents and Indigenous people.

Buscholl said the party also plans to hire back retired nurses to help full staffing vacancies. Rural health care would be helped by expanding nurse practitioners’ scope of practice, she said.

The PC affordability platform narrows in on food security and housing costs.

The party said it will offer a PST rebate for all new home constructions and will return up to $15,000 on a home energy grant for new or existing homes to help them become more energy efficient.

The PCs also plan to create a commercial greenhouse industry to provide year-round produce, aiming to reduce Saskatchewan’s carbon footprint and lower costs.

While the Saskatchewan NDP has promised to cut the provincial gas tax, Buscholl said her party would leave the $0.15/litre tax in place because cutting the it “won’t benefit everyone in the province.”

Buscholl said issues surrounding class size and complexity in Saskatchewan schools would be tackled by working closely with teachers and school divisions.

She added that the party’s platform ensures public funds would go to public school only, and noted that the party also plans to institute a breakfast and lunch program in schools.

“If we keep cutting the way the Saskatchewan Party has cut all this time, we are not going to have this future generation of leaders,” Buscholl said.

“They are not going to be given the tools to equip themselves to go forth in life.”

The party promises to “take the politics out of the classroom,” by repealing Saskatchewan’s controversial Parents Bill of Rights, which requires schools to inform parents if a student under 16 wishes to change the name or pronouns used by the school.

The party’s other promises include creating an action plan to remove asbestos from pipes and commercial buildings. The Progressive Conservatives also promise to open up the north investing $400 million over four years to help ensure year-round transportation access.

The provincial election is set for October 28.