Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit has achieved his fourth term. After the vote on Monday, Oct. 26, Ottenbreit was quickly declared elected with approximately 75.6 per cent of the vote, coming in above the NDP鈥檚 Carter Antoine and the Green Party鈥檚 Judy Mergel. Ottenbreit鈥檚 success was matched by his party, which formed its fourth majority government with 50 seats compared to the NDP鈥檚 11.
In total, 3768 votes were cast for Ottenbreit, with 1068 for Antoine and 145 for Mergel.
While this is a higher percentage of the vote for Ottenbreit, who had 73 per cent of the vote in 2016, a much lower number of votes were cast overall in Yorkton. A total of 4,981 ballots were counted, compared to 6,318 in 2016.
Elsewhere in the region Terry Dennis took Canora-Pelly for the Sask. Party with 4160 votes, compared to Stacy Strykowski鈥檚 1431 votes for the NDP, Robert Hayes gaining 356 for the Buffalo Party and Breton Gattinger鈥檚 123 for the Green Party.
In Melville-Saltcoats, the Sask Party鈥檚 Warren Kaeding took a healthy majority of the vote with 5023 votes overall. In second was the NDP鈥檚 Bonnie Galenzoski with 1141 votes, followed by the Progressive Conservative鈥檚 Trever Ratti with 317 and the Green Party鈥檚 Jack Powless with 130.
Ottenbreit said that winning a fourth term is exciting, and that election night doesn鈥檛 get old.
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite humbling to look at the percentages we鈥檙e getting coming in, the amount of votes we鈥檝e been getting even after three terms, into our fourth term.鈥�
The election result is a confirmation that they have done good work over the past 13 years, said Ottenbreit, but also a vote of confidence in Premier Scott Moe, who has won his first election as Premier.
鈥淭his is a pretty strong showing not only to the support of the Sask Party and the government in Yorkton, but I think province-wide, the numbers we are seeing coming in that show that the people have a lot of confidence in Scott Moe but also in his leadership and it鈥檚 a pretty strong signal that he is definitely the very respected and strong leader of our province.鈥�
This election was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions put in place, which limited gatherings and campaign events. Ottenbreit said that they鈥檙e used to a lot more interaction with people during an election, whether in the campaign office or by door knocking.
鈥淥bviously this time we couldn鈥檛 really do that much, but still we found innovative ways to connect with people, to have them call in or you know, communicate with them in some way shape or form to hear their concerns鈥� I think it鈥檚 a pretty clear indication with the numbers we鈥檙e seeing here that, you know, some of the stuff that we did worked.鈥�
Ottenbreit also had praise for how Elections Saskatchewan rose to the challenge of running an election in a pandemic.
鈥淓lections Saskatchewan did a pretty good job with the challenges they had鈥� making sure that being able to vote was accessible to as many people as possible.鈥�
This story has been updated to reflect the final numbers, and include results from surrounding ridings.
