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New polling shows voters may be motivated by pronoun legislation

Two-thirds of Saskatchewan voters say that the province’s law on parental notification and consent for student pronoun and name changes will impact how they vote in the province’s upcoming election, according to a recent Insightrix Research poll.

Supporters of the opposition NDP are most galvanized by the signature legislation, with 72 percent saying it will impact the way they vote in this fall’s election. 64 percent of those who favour the incumbent Saskatchewan Party say the law will affect how they vote.

Although voters ranked pronoun legislation as the least important of four issues in the upcoming election, half said it has ‘a lot’ of sway in their decision. This shows how much of a wedge issue the Parental Bill of Rights could be and shows a stark contrast between rural and urban voters.

Lang McGilp of Insightrix spoke to the National Post and said, “It struck a lot of people as excessive to invoke the clause over such a narrow issue,” adding that Premier Scott Moe’s use of the notwithstanding clause to override a judge’s ruling on the pronoun legislation was especially off-putting to urban voters in Regina and Saskatoon. He also mentioned that this issue was ‘polarizing.’

The provincial election is now just 10 weeks away.

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Learn more about the great work the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association and its members are doing at saskheavy.ca.

NDP nominates two more candidates

The provincial New Democrats have nominated two more candidates for this fall’s election.

Over the weekend, NDP members in Humboldt-Watrous nominated Kevin Fallis as their local candidate. Fallis is a healthcare worker. He has been a SEIU-West member for 21 years. Fallis was awarded the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Bob Sass Award in 2021.

Last night Clare McNab was acclaimed as the NDP candidate for Cypress Hills.

Saskatchewan New Democrats have nominated 50 of 61 candidates, 26 of the nominated candidates are women as the party is on track to fulfill its commitment to a gender-balanced slate. The party has three other nominations lined up.

The next nomination will be for the Saskatchewan Party later this week when they nominate their 58th candidate in Prince Albert.

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SaskPower Minister promotes wind project as RM residents raise concerns

The Seven Stars Energy Project has been proposed by Enbridge and plans to build 47 wind power turbines in the RM of Weyburn and RM of Griffin. According to the project site, electricity demand throughout the province of Saskatchewan is increasing and this project would help provide emissions-free, reliable electricity. If constructed, the project is expected to be a 200 MW wind farm. Seven Stars Energy would provide enough electricity to power over 100,000 average Saskatchewan homes, once operational.

Last week, more than fifty residents showed up to an RM council meeting to protest the project following a community meeting that saw over a hundred attendees. Those who spoke against the project cited ‘health concerns,’ ‘property devaluation’ and ‘noise.’

Outgoing MLA for Weyburn-Big Muddy Dustin Duncan has represented the area since 2006 and is currently the Minister responsible for SaskPower. Duncan did not comment on the negative feedback.

Duncan sat down with local media and discussed how he is not surprised about the pushback, saying, “I think that you often see that when these types of projects come to communities. And I certainly know that as the proponent Enbridge is aware of that as well, that's why they have had outreach with members of the community, with the landowners, with some of the neighbouring landowners, acreage owners as well, and continue to do so.” 

Duncan said that RMs and local councils are being responsive to the ratepayers when voicing concerns about the project, but encouraged people to understand the facts and learn from similar projects in the area saying, “Everybody involved, including the councils, including the landowners just need to take the time to engage with the company, engage with their councils, and, you know, find out as much as we can.” 

Duncan said this project will help the province reach it’s net-zero goals. For the noise part of concerns, Enbridge said the cumulative sound from turbines will be less than 40 decibels — or equivalent to a whisper from 1.5 metres away.

More news and info

• Inmate’s death at Saskatoon Correctional Centre under investigation (CKOM News)

• Liberal cabinet minister Dan Vandal criticizes senate appointment of broadcaster Charles Adler (CBC News)

• Generational Divide – Canadians over 60 have highest consumer confidence under 60 less confident (Bloomberg/Nanos)

• Fire alarm sees total evacuation of Regina's Cornwall Centre (CTV Regina)

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