After getting blown out of the water for a second straight election in April 2016, the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party needs to better engage with University of Saskatchewan students. Luckily, help is on the way.

The 2016 election, which took place on Apr. 4, may as well have been the election that never happened for the NDP. Saskatchewan people disproportionately voted in favour of the reigning Saskatchewan Party, the seat count remained largely unchanged, and once again, the NDP party leader was ousted from his seat.

Interim leader Trent Wotherspoon discussing the NDP’s future.

Legislature looks nearly the same as it did following the election that took place over four years prior. The question of what is causing this voter stagnation is one that must be asked if the NDP has any hope of altering voter perceptions.

One of the most interesting statistics was the high number of registered voters, but a dismally low voter turnout, at just 58 per cent. What this statistic says to me is that voters are getting wrongly accused of being disengaged.

In fact, it appears to me that voters were engaged, perhaps even sympathetic to the NDP, but neither party was able to win over the residents, so as a result, many people chose to stay home.

While campaigning for Tanya Dunn-Pierce, who ran for MLA in the Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood riding, I attempted to get many of my friends and peers to volunteer. Friends often responded that they weren’t too impressed with either party, or something along the lines of that. Even people who are generally NDP sympathizers were disenfranchised by the party in that election.

What gives me hope is seeing the poll-by-poll results from the municipal election, where Charlie Clark received 63 per cent of the vote on the university campus. Despite only two days of advance polling on campus this year, approximately the same number of students showed up to vote as did over the course of five days in the 2012 municipal election.

The provincial riding for Saskatoon-University was won by Eric Olauson of the Sask Party, who beat the NDP’s Jennifer Bowes by a slim margin. Based on these facts, I do not believe that people in the university area are necessarily opposed to progressive politics, but Charlie Clark’s campaign did a much better job of proving to voters that he was the right candidate.

This notion of earning the trust of the voters was a key point during NDP interim leader Trent Wotherspoon’s speech at the NDP’s annual convention on Oct. 22, 2016, pledging that the NDP would be “rolling up our sleeves to earn back the trust and to build.”

However, it is difficult to build together when the party platform is convoluted and inaccessible. Last year, despite a very strong platform that had very bold and progressive initiatives in place for students, their message struggled to receive attention and gain traction.

At the most recent Saskatchewan Young New Democrats convention, there was a tremendous turnout, with many new members who were engaged. The provincial convention had great youth attendance as well.

There is no problem involving students and young people. It’s just that the relevant platform planks need to resonate with the rest of the young voters who are not necessarily politically active.

At the convention, Dave McGrane was elected as the new party president. McGrane is a scholar of social democracy and its history throughout Saskatchewan and Quebec, and he knows the ins and outs of the electoral history throughout the decades. If anyone has the knowledge necessary to pull the provincial NDP out of its slump, it’s him.

Not only does he have a similar understanding of party reformation history, but he is a professor at St. Thomas More college, and is consistently working with students to improve their lives. The election of McGrane is the first step to moving the NDP forward with U of S students and the rest of the province.

The NDP has strong policies and has been a vocal opposition towards Sask Party cuts and mismanagement. Now, it is time to make sure that message is heard loud and clear, make sure it resonates with the public, and make sure the NDP forms government in 2020.

—

Travis Hebert

Photo: Aidan Murphy / Supplied