Letters: Fewer voting spots in Sask. will favour rural voters

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These new large polls are a significant change in voting practices. Urban voters will no longer be able to walk to their local school to vote. Yes, this is combined with a new voting week. Rural voters have more time to travel to their usual place. Voting by mail requires Internet access and computer savvy.

It would seem to me this voting change will negatively affect urban voter turnout who are accustomed to walking to their local school, and yet positively affect rural voter turnout, furthering the gap between urban and rural voters in our province.

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Statistical analysis after the election will show whether broadening access to voters actually occurred, rather than the hypothetical claim by our chief electoral officer Michael Boda.

Phil MacIntyre, Saskatoon

Editor’s note: Elections Saskatchewan acknowledges there will be fewer voting locations this year, 880, which is half the number as in 2020. But in 2020, the number of location was expanded to 1660 due to COVID-19. In 2016, there were about 1,075 voting locations. But the voting period has expanded to an entire week, according to the agency, with six full days amounting to 56 hours of access to in-person voting. Opportunities to vote by mail and homebound voting have also been expanded.

Wyant should have pushed for downtown

Gordon Wyant wants to be Saskatoon’s new mayor. Born and educated in Saskatoon and having worked the majority of his career years in our downtown, Wyant recently resigned from provincial politics as minister of advanced education.

Wyant’s mayoral campaign promotes “safe streets,” focuses on crime and safety and calls Saskatoon “broken.” Research shows that locating educational institutions in a city’s downtown core is a Top 5 tool when revitalizing a downtown.

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Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver all have major education institutions located in their downtown cores. Saskatchewan Polytechnic currently has 10 satellite locations in Saskatoon’s downtown core providing many social and economic benefits.

Here’s a question for Wyant as he campaigns to becomes Saskatoon’s mayor: Why as minister of advanced education did he not vigorously promote and initiate local community and business consultation when considering the final Saskatchewan Polytechnic Saskatoon campus move location?

Why was Saskatoon’s downtown not seriously considered? The Saskatchewan Polytechnic move is referenced as a “once in a generation opportunity” with the province committing $200 million to a $2-billion-plus build.

There is nothing more dynamic and economically beneficial to our downtown core than adding an education institution.

The support of the location at Innovation Place on the University of Saskatchewan campus by the U of S and Saskatchewan Polytechnic officials is ridiculous and short-sighted, serving only their own institutional interests.

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Wyant as advanced education minister was in the driver’s seat to consider all location possibilities for the Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus move. Does Wyant deserve to be our new mayor? Let the citizens of Saskatoon decide.

Darrell Zakreski, Saskatoon

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