SASKATOON – Saskatchewan is officially into a provincial election campaign.
Premier Brad Wall has tweeted out that he has met with Lt.-Gov. Vaughn Solomon Schofield in Saskatoon and has asked her to dissolve the legislature.
That has triggered a 27-day campaign that will end at the ballot box on April 4.
In his first election news release, the premier immediately attacks the NDP, accusing his rivals of dragging Saskatchewan back when they were last in government.
He says the only way to keep the province strong during challenging economic times is to re-elect his Saskatchewan Party.
He says he will focus his campaign on comparing his party’s record with that of the NDP, which he says had a poor job creation record and created the longest surgical wait times in Canada.
“The NDP raised taxes 21 times in 16 years. The Saskatchewan Party has delivered record income tax and education property tax cuts for everyone in Saskatchewan and has kept taxes low,” he said Tuesday in the release.
NDP Leader Cam Broten has said the government drained the rainy day savings fund during the sunniest days in Saskatchewan and put nothing aside long term.
He said the question for families is who can they trust to protect and to fix health care and education.
“And when we look at the record for the Sask. Party, they didn’t get the job done during boom years. We certainly can’t trust them in tighter years.”
Saskatchewan voters last went to the polls in November 2011, when Wall and his Saskatchewan Party won a second term in office.
Wall always ranks at or near the top when it comes to the most popular premiers in the country.
He has vehemently opposed a national carbon tax saying it would “kneecap” a struggling Canadian economy, has called for the abolition of the Senate and has championed pipeline projects.
Broten is heading into his first campaign as NDP leader.
