OUTLOOK - Barret Kropf has gained the trust of the people, and now he says it's time to get back to work.
The newly-elected Saskatchewan Party MLA for Dakota-Arm River was officially thrust into the political arena in the province on Election Night when Kropf's victory was called at 9:30 p.m. as he was sitting at 643 votes, a far distance from his nearest opponent, the NDP's Jordan Wiens at 197 votes.
When all was said and done, Kropf had earned 4960 votes from constituents in the local riding, which includes Outlook and the surrounding area on the east side of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River.
Speaking to this reporter on Halloween from Regina, where MLAs were gathering in the legislative building, Kropf says he enjoyed getting out on the campaign trail in the weeks leading up to the fateful day on October 28.
"It was amazing," he said. "I had the pleasure of winning my nomination early back in April, and I really had the runway since April to make my way around the riding and meet people, and as I'm sure that you've found out working in the area, there are lots of great stories and great people, and I've just enjoyed getting to know people in getting out to all the different events and knocking on doors and whatnot. It's just blown me away at how awesome people are in this riding."
Barret says that the provincial economy was among the biggest topics on the minds of Saskatchewan residents, and that people didn't want to go ahead with a formula proposed by another party that didn't have a set plan to begin with.
"I think the biggest concern that came across very clearly in our riding was people were excited that the economy was growing, and that they didn't want that to change," said Kropf. "What the NDP was offering was change with no plan, and they liked how we continue to put forward a strong plan to keep building a strong economy so that we can keep investing in health care and education, knowing that we've got work to do on those fronts, but without that strong economy, you won't be able to do that. So the word at the doors was yes, there are affordability issues and things to be worked on in health care and education, but the priority is that we have to keep making sure we build a strong economy to facilitate all of that."
Kropf takes over the role of MLA in the Dakota-Arm River riding from Dana Skoropad, who had previously announced his intentions to leave provincial politics to focus more on his family. Barret says that Dana's exit leaves him with some lofty shoes to fill, but he's excited about such a challenge and knows the impact that Skoropad made with people and the local area.
"Anyone who knows Dana knows that he's a great individual and cares deeply about the people from the riding," said Kropf. "Being able to spend time with Dana and get to know him, I know I've got my work cut out to continue to show that same kind of passion to the people in the riding. Even though he was a one-term MLA, he made a significant difference in the riding and so I know I've got some big shoes to fill, and I hope that now the people in the riding have thrown their trust behind me, I look forward to it and the opportunity to get to meet more people and hear more great stories."
One thing that Skoropad left Kropf with as far as any advice went was that the work doesn't stop and that the trust of one's constituents can be hard to earn, yet easy to lose. The new MLA knows what's ahead of him, so he intends on hitting the ground running in order to retain that level of trust and respect from constituents in the local riding.
"I think the advice is that it's hard work," he said. "There are no days off in the sense that once you're elected, you can kick your feet up. The hard work that myself and the rest of our caucus has in front of us over the next four years is rolling up our sleeves and working hard every day and continue to earn and keep that trust of our constituents. I think that would be the biggest piece of advice that Dana has given me. He did try to trick me into buying a really fancy colored suit, but I don't have the same style as Dana, I'm just a black and blue suit kind of guy, but hopefully I can show people that I work just as hard as he does."
Barret wasn't exactly a bundle of nerves on Election Night itself, rather spending the night with family and volunteers in Kenaston while watching the results come in. He was more nervous about gaining the support of people back on Nomination Night in April in order to become the candidate for Dakota-Arm River before the province switched into election mode. He says that come Election Night in Saskatchewan, he and his team had done the work and it was simply up to the voters to decide whether or not Kropf had earned their ballot.
"Our volunteer team knocked on thousands of doors, and so we were confident that we had earned the trust," he said. "Of course, there's nervousness and just hoping that people got out to vote instead of using an excuse like, Oh, you've got this in the bag.' To be honest, I was more nervous on my nomination night then I was on Election Night. It was just a great team of volunteers, and they were the ones who gave me the confidence to just really enjoy the day, process, and let it all unfold."
When the results started to come in, Kropf was declared the winner in Dakota-Arm River fairly early into the night when you take into consideration the long duration of the evening. He says it was great to see the final results come in because it gave him and his team a chance to reflect and celebrate for the evening before the official work began the very next day.
"It was great," he said. "We gathered our volunteers and family in Kenaston. It was a little slower than some people might have anticipated with results coming in, but it was a heck of a lot faster than how BC's results were coming in. But once the results started coming in and they declared Arm River fairly early into the night as opposed to some city ones, it was just a really good chance to celebrate with our volunteers because without them, and without a strong team, it's impossible to do what we accomplish. It was also about reminding each other that we have some work ahead of us, and I'm really looking forward to the next four years."
By the time everything was said and done and the votes had been tallied, one of the things that became abundantly clear to most people is the 'rural vs urban' picture that played out as the night progressed, with the Saskatchewan Party dominating the rural parts of the province but losing a number of city areas, while the NDP gained enough ground to send a message to newly re-elected Premier Scott Moe, who shared that said message "was clear" in his victory speech on Election Night.
Kropf sees it differently, not exactly seeing the divide that many are pointing to, but he says that the people of the province spoke clearly with the end results.
"I think that's the picture that the NDP is trying to paint, but there are 16 cities in Saskatchewan and we won in 15 of them," he said. "So I don't know if there's a divide. I think the province spoke clearly and they gave us a clear mandate to keep building a strong economy and that's what we're going to do."
As for what comes now, Kropf says that after a number of meetings in Regina, he's excited about setting up his local office and opening up lines of communication with people, eager to start getting to work on the things that are important to his local constituents.
"Well, the first couple of days, we went and picked up all of our signs," said Barret, on the immediate aftermath of Election Night. "We've had some meetings in Regina today and I got to meet and celebrate with all of the other members who were elected. Right now, it's all about getting the office set up in Davidson. We'll spend the next couple of days doing that, setting up computers and our email so that people can begin to reach out to us and that we can continue to serve them."
