Will this be the year the federal New Democratic Party ends its drought in Saskatchewan? The party has not sent an MP to Ottawa for seven years, through three elections.
Its best hope may be a rematch in Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar. NDP candidate Nettie Wiebe, the first female president of the National Farmers Union, has been defeated in the last two elections, but both were tight races. Conservative incumbent Kelly Block won in 2008 by a razor-thin margin of less than 300 votes.
Wiebe is a veteran campaigner who ran in 2001 to replace provincial NDP leader and premier, Roy Romanow, but finished third behind Chris Axworthy and the winner, Lorne Calvert. Raised on a farm, she is an ethics professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
After a career in health care, Block won two terms as mayor of Waldheim, a small town north of Saskatoon. Maclean's magazine last year selected her as a rising political star for impressing fellow MPs with her committee work on Parliament Hill.
The prairie province is the birthplace of medicare in Canada. It is also where Tommy Douglas founded the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the forerunner of the New Democratic Party. And Lorne Calvert's provincial NDP government held power from 2001 to 2007.
But the NDP has not held a federal seat in Saskatchewan since Lorne Nystrom lost in 2004 to Conservative Andrew Scheer in the riding of Regina-Qu'Appelle. In 2008, one quarter of voters cast their ballots for the NDP. In recent federal elections, the party has invariably placed second in the popular vote. In 2008, the NDP was first runner-up in 12 of 14 Saskatchewan's races.
This year, party leader Jack Layton wants to convert that ground support into seats. He and his team have targeted Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, Regina-Qu'Appelle and Palliser as three battleground ridings in the province the NDP is fighting hard to win.
Making early campaign visits to the province, Layton vowed to train thousands of new doctors and nurses and to increase access to rural health services. University of Saskatchewan political studies professor, David McGrane, says this policy is aimed directly at the prairies, where health care is a major issue.
"I think for the NDP, it's partly about finding issues that connect in Saskatchewan. Health care may be one, seniors might be another," said McGrane.
Two other candidates are running in Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar. Lee Reaney, an employment counsellor for new Canadians, is the Liberal candidate. He was a 2010 Olympic torch bearer. Vicki Strelioff , a medical secretary, is running for the Green Party.
Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar is an economically diverse constituency. It takes in the southwestern quadrant of Saskatoon, encompassing some of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, as well as the surrounding rural area to the south and west, including the towns of Biggar, Rosetown and Delisle. The riding has a large First Nations population.
As well as health care, agriculture, affordable housing and the economy are important election issues in the riding.
All four candidates have Facebook and Twitter accounts. As with many contests in this election, door knocking and effective use of social media could be the key to winning this too-close-to-call race.
