March 08, 2016 - 1:00 AM
REGINA - Saskatchewan voters head to the polls April 4. Here are five things to know about the 28th provincial general election:
1. Saskatchewan's last election was in November 2011, when Brad Wall and his Saskatchewan Party won a second term in office. The Saskatchewan Party, which was formed in the 1990s when Liberal and Progressive Conservative members joined, captured 49 of 58 seats in the legislature and the New Democrats took nine. The Saskatchewan Party took more than 60 per cent of the popular vote. The largest popular vote in the province before that was 57 per cent by the Liberals in 1912.
2. Saskatchewan residents will vote in 61 constituencies. Three seats were added when the electoral map was redrawn. A commission was asked to redraw constituencies after Premier Brad Wall said in 2012 that new ones were needed because the province's population was growing. One constituency was added in Saskatoon, one in Regina and one in rural Saskatchewan.
3. This will be the first election with Cam Broten leading the New Democrats. He took the helm of the NDP in March 2013 and was tasked with rebuilding the party after its 2011 election results. Dwain Lingenfelter led the party in the last election.
4. The provincial election was originally scheduled for Nov. 2, 2015, but because the campaign would have overlapped in part with the federal election, the vote legally had to be moved to the first Monday of April 2016.
5. Elections Saskatchewan's website says there are four other parties registered in Saskatchewan: the Green Party of Saskatchewan, the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Liberal Association, and the Western Independence Party of Saskatchewan. However, no other than a Saskatchewan Party or NDP candidate has been elected to the legislature since 1999.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2016