Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
Saskatchewan Party leadership candidate Tina Beaudry-Mellor says political and policy growth for the party will continue to be a focus for her if elected premier.
There are six candidates vying for the Saskatchewan Party leadership. They are being featured in a series of articles over a five-week period leading up to Dec. 8, the deadline for when party memberships must be obtained or renewed in order to vote in the leadership election.
The leadership candidates are Beaudry-Mellor, Ken Cheveldayoff, Rob Clarke, Alanna Koch, Scott Moe and Gordon Wyant. The candidates are being featured in the order their interviews were conducted either by phone or in person.
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 next premier.
Tina Beaudry-Mellor
To be eligible to vote in the leadership election, new memberships and membership renewals must be received by the Saskatchewan Party headquarters by no later than Dec. 8 at 5 p.m. or people will not be added to the official voters list. The leadership election takes place on Jan. 27.
Beaudry-Mellor, the MLA for Regina University, was first elected in the 2016 provincial general election. She is a member of the Standing Committee on Human Services, and the advisory committee for the Saskatchewan Legislative Internship Program. She has also served as minister of social services, minister responsible for the Status of Women and on the government’s Public Accounts committee.
As a longtime instructor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina, Beaudry-Mellor has been published in peer-reviewed journals and business magazines among other publications. She has been a former chair of Equal voice, and a board member of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, Community Investments Committee of the United Way and the Regina Transition House. Beaudry-Mellor also owns a small management consulting business.
[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see the Nov. 24 print edition of The Cross Roads.’]
The leadership candidate said she had two main reasons for joining the race to become the next premier of Saskatchewan. She said she believes she could add value as leader with a focus on growing the party in terms of its policies and its supporters.
“My value-add in this leadership process is to offer some new policy ideas for our party to think about going forward, and I am interested in the political growth of our party,” noted Beaudry-Mellor, who has been doing her best to attract new and former members to the party. “That’s important to our political future.”
She said she has been deliberate in trying to attract members, and it is an important step for the future of the Saskatchewan Party. New ideas lead to political growth for parties, so policy discussions are important, she said.
The candidate said the biggest concern she is hearing from people across Saskatchewan is the federal government’s tax changes, but people are also concerned about a federal carbon tax. The legalization of marijuana has also been a surprising, yet quiet, area of concern, she recognized.
Members have not been asking questions about marijuana legalization during public debates, but they are asking her about the topic in person. She noted that education has also become a growing topic in recent weeks.
Beaudry-Mellor said the party has a strong rural base with most members of the caucus in rural constituencies, so the party pays close attention to concerns in rural areas. Therefore, she said rural Saskatchewan is well served by a strong base of representatives.
All of the leadership candidates have been reaching out to members in rural areas during the campaign regardless of whether they are elected in a rural or an urban riding, so she said she hopes people have noticed the commitment to rural Saskatchewan.
However, she said the party needs urban support to form government and maintain its position in power, so the party has to focus on both rural and urban areas.
Her campaign focuses have been to reinstate the provincial sales tax (PST) exemption on insurance products and to get back to a balanced budget. She said she does not believe the party realized how much the PST exemption would affect people, especially farmers.
“I was the first candidate to say that we need to remove PST on all insurance products,” Beaudry-Mellor said, noting that she believes removing the exemption on insurance was a mistake and it is costing farmers because they are large consumers of insurance products. “I think that’s very important.”
She said the government should not be penalizing people who are trying to protect their financial security. She said if reinstating the PST exemption means it takes one year longer to balance the budget, it is still a move the government should make.
In terms of party renewal, she said it means building on the party’s strengths and inspiring the next generation of people. The candidate said she is able to connect with young people and she would work to reach the younger generations.
Beaudry-Mellor said the party’s support is weaker in urban centres than rural areas, so the party needs to shore up its weaknesses and she believes electing an urban MLA would help to build interest in cities. She said she has studied and analyzed politics all her life, so she believes she is in the best position to grow and to lead the party.
“We have to pay homage to the legacy of Premier Brad Wall,” she added, noting that she is well versed on issues facing the province. “He has created an incredible foundation for us to build upon, but we do need to add some fresh ideas.”
[/emember_protected] 
