Majority rules: Sask Party does it again, wins fifth-straight election

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Krishna said they talked to colleagues and did research on the parties before making their decisions, which weren’t based around any specific issues. Mostly, they were excited to participate in the democratic process.

“Everything matters, what happens here at the local level. We want to contribute in whatever way we can,” Krishna said.

He laughed that in India, voters line up for blocks outside polling stations. He was surprised by how easy and calm the process was on Monday. While there were no lineups Monday morning, a steady stream of people, from seniors to students, filed into the Louise Avenue school on election day.

Bernadette Busta, after casting a ballot in Regina Lakeview on Monday, said she “felt pretty good” about deciding to use her democratic voice.

She’s a regular voter when it comes to provincial elections. This year, she said, it felt like a “toss-up” as to which party she was going to support.

Busta said she hopes to see the next governing party focus on education.

“It seems a bit chaotic right now,” she said. “I don’t know why it has to be like that.”

Sean Easton, a university student, said it’s important for younger people to take the time and effort to vote.

“This is where it matters. You want to see your change, you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to make that change yourself,” Easton said in Saskatoon.

On campus, he added, some students are hyper-political while others are apathetic.

“It’s become such a … you’ve got to tip-toe around it,” he said. “That’s why I think we don’t really talk about it as much, because now people are like, ‘Oh you support this, you support that.’ It’s getting more and more polarized.”

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The voting caps a month-long campaign that focused on health care, affordability and crime.

Moe promised broad tax relief and continued withholding of federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa.

His platform would cost an additional $1.2 billion over four years. He said his tax reduction plan would save a family of four $3,400 over four years. It also includes tax credits for those looking to grow their families or put their children in sports and arts activities.

Moe promised deficits in the first two years, followed by a surplus in 2027.

Beck pledged to spend more to fix health care and education, pause the gas tax, and remove the provincial sales tax on children’s clothes and some grocery items.

She said her promises would cost an additional $3.5 billion over four years, with plans to cut what she calls Saskatchewan Party waste and to balance the budget by the end of her term.

Moe also promised that his first order of business if re-elected would be to ban “biological boys” from using school changing rooms with “biological girls.”

He said he made the promise after learning of a complaint at a southeast Saskatchewan school about two biological boys using a girls’ change room.

It was later revealed that a parent of the two children who were the subjects of the complaint is an NDP candidate. Moe said he didn’t know that when he made the promise.

Beck has said such a ban would make vulnerable kids more vulnerable. She also promised to repeal a Saskatchewan Party law that requires parental consent if children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school.

At dissolution, the governing Saskatchewan Party had 42 seats, while the Opposition NDP had 14. There were four Independents and one seat was vacant.

— With files from Bre McAdam, Saskatoon StarPhoenix; Larissa Kurz, Regina Leader-Post; and The Canadian Press