Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads

Saskatchewan Party leadership candidate Rob Clarke says he’s a true outsider candidate and he wants to build a stronger province by being an inclusive leader.

Six candidates are running for the Saskatchewan Party leadership. The candidates have been featured in a series of articles over a six-week period leading up to Dec. 8, which is today. That’s when party memberships had to be obtained or renewed in order to vote in the leadership election.
The candidates are Clarke, Tina Beaudry-Mellor, Ken Cheveldayoff, Alanna Koch, Scott Moe and Gordon Wyant. They were featured in the order in which interviews were conducted.

Rob Clarke is vying for the Sask. Party leadership.

While the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan Liberal Party will also hold leadership conventions in 2018, the leadership race for the Saskatchewan Party has greater significance because the winner will become the province’s next premier.

The leadership election is taking place on Jan. 27.

Clarke, who grew up in Quesnel, B.C., and is a member of the Muskeg Lake First Nation, served 18 years as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and all seven of his postings were in Saskatchewan. He obtained the rank of sergeant before moving on to politics.

Clarke was first elected to the House of Commons in a byelection in 2008, and he served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River from 2008-2015.

[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see the Dec. 8 print edition of The Cross Roads.’]

During his policing career, Clarke was recognized with the Saskatchewan Council of Senior Federal Officials Volunteer of the Year Award, Queen’s Golden Jubilee Commendation Medal, and the RCMP Commissioners Commendation for Bravery. He has participated on community boards for victim services, restorative justice and interagency police management boards. He has also been a Legion member for 31 years and volunteered to coach various minor sports in the communities where he has lived.

Clarke entered the race on Nov. 2, just a day before the nomination deadline. He said he chose to run because he’s been watching as the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan has moved up in the polls and he believes a change is needed.

“I think the party just needs a major reset,” Clarke said, recognizing that the other five leadership candidates are standing by the status quo with respect to the same old issues and they are not calling for change. “We’re missing the grassroots.”

He said he believes the party has been pulling away from its grassroots membership, so he wants to bring things full circle by reaching out to grassroots members and to reconnect with them. He noted that other candidates are portraying themselves as outsiders after having served in cabinet, but he is an outsider candidate with a fresh perspective.

Clarke said he comes from a history of serving in the federal government and he knows about economic stimulus for tough times. He has also noticed concerns with gang violence and, with his policing background, he knows one solution is getting more boots on the ground.

He recognized that police officers in Saskatchewan are too strapped down by paperwork, so he would call for an increase in support staff to allow the officers to get out of the office and back on the streets where they belong.

He said it’s important to balance the province’s budget, but he does not believe cutting wages to public servants is the right way to do it. He said the province stands to lose good public servants to other jurisdictions as a result of the cuts.

Clarke said the other leadership candidates are, or have been, getting paid by the taxpayers. He said he was busy working and it prevented him from joining the race earlier. He suggested that the other candidates should not be getting paid by the taxpayers during their leadership campaigns, but he is surging forward with his campaign because he is passionate about politics and he wants “to help all the north and, basically, all of Saskatchewan.”

He said he has family spread throughout the province and it’s something people might not know about him, but it helps to explain his passion for Saskatchewan. Regardless of whether a person lives in a rural, urban or remote area, they are all residents of the province, Clarke said. He would represent everyone equally.

“We’re all Saskatchewan residents, and that’s paramount,” he said. “I’ve reflected that and been able to demonstrate that just in northern Saskatchewan where we had the non-aboriginal and the aboriginal (peoples), and I represented everyone equally and fairly.”

He recognized the diversity of the province, especially with respect to its vast resource sector. Clarke said party members are disgruntled and he hopes to re-engage with all of the members who have left the party. As an outsider candidate, he said he wants to be inclusive and bring everybody together.

Crime prevention will be a focus for Clarke and he said he would like to set up a task force to concentrate on gang violence.

He added that he would help to renew interest in the party by engaging youth, but also by including other people in the discussion.

[/emember_protected]