Saskatoon Northwest Post-Mortem

Predictably, the Sask Party's Gord Wyant handily won the Saskatoon Northwest by-election over the NDP's Jan Dyky.

Here are the numbers...

1. Wyant won with (approx) 58.96% of the popular vote. By contrast, Serge LeClerc won 53.80% in the 2007 general election
2. Dyky won (approx) 33.06% of the popular vote. In the 2007 general election, Ken Winton-Grey won 29.66%.
3. In 2007, the provincial Liberals received 1238 votes, or 14.76% of the popular vote. In the 2010 Saskatoon NW by-election that vote collapsed, with the Liberal candidate Eric Steiner receiving only 157 votes, or 3.03% of the popular vote. In other words, the Liberal vote, not unlike the Green Party or the Progressive Conservative votes are merely friends, family and protest votes

But here are the political parts...

1. The NDP came out with the smear piece on Wyant immediately out of the gate. There was huge push back on the piece on the door step. Their subsequent pieces were not nearly as inflammatory
2. The NDP/Unions decided to call union members in the constituency and tell them that if Gord Wyant was elected, Brad Wall would sell PCS to BHP Billiton and they would all lose their jobs. This tactic shows utter contempt for union workers by their executives and the NDP by assuming union workers are not smart enough to make political decisions on their own.
3. Both Dale Schmeichel, the NDP provincial secretary (on the Richard Brown Show) and Dwain Lingenfelter predicted there would be a huge surprise in the by-election. The huge surprise never materialized (other than the fact that people are still voting for the NDP).
4. The last refuge of the damned... marginalizing women. In a final act of desperation, the NDP's last tactic was to "make history" and elect the first woman MLA in Saskatoon Northwest. The NDP don't understand how this is "tokenism"
5. Both Lingenfelter and Dyky just don't get it... On Newstalk650 Lingenfelter claims that the Saskatoon NW consituency is "in the bag" in 2011 and that the NDP would win the general election in 2011. Refer to John Gormley's book Left Out about any politician that refers to the term "in the bag".
6. Dyky told Wyant to enjoy the seat "for a year" but that she was coming back to get the seat in 2011. I believe the voters will be making that decision, not the NDP.

The NDP are completely out of touch with the majority of Saskatchewan residents. They believe that the political smear and whistling past the graveyard is a successful political strategy. Dyky's remarks are the quintessential definition of Rand's postulate "there are no contradictions". She and Lingenfelter are political soul mates.

And both political losers.

Congratulations to the Sask Party and Gord Wyant and for running a honorable campaign.

The NDP, Dyky and Lingenfelter, not so much.