Mayoral candidates will have to rework strategies with Atchison entering race: Prof

There are now six people wanting to be the next mayor of Saskatoon, but the attention is really on three of them.

That’s according to University of Saskatchewan professor of political studies Joe Garcea.

He says with former mayor Don Atchison now in the running, current mayor Charlie Clark, and former Sask. Party MLA Rob Norris will have to be very strategic these next few weeks.

“In terms of Mr. Atchison coming into the field, I think he probably will have an impact on both Charlie Clark and Rob Norris,” said Garcea. “I think he’ll draw some support from people that would have voted for those individuals if he were not running.”

As for the timing of Atchison’s announcement, Garcea thinks he was just playing a wait-and-see game to get a sense of where the field was at.

Garcea says because there are three strong candidates, there is a chance of vote-splitting.

“You know there are multiple candidates running so there is a likelihood that you have a chance of winning because undoubtedly the vote is going to be split, particularly between the top three candidates,” said Garcea.

Garcea says Atchison’s candidacy not only gives voters another alternative, but also means there are strong candidates from whom to choose.

“Saskatoon is actually fortunate to have three very committed, three very clear-headed candidates running for the position, as well as others we don’t know as much about,” said Garcea. “They’ve all got strengths and they’ve all got an opportunity to win, and it’s really a question of how the vote splits now between those three candidates and the others.”

Garcea says there was a sense that before Atchison decided to run, the thinking was that all the people who had voted for him in previous years would vote for Norris this time.

“In essence, kind of an ‘anyone but Clark’ kind of movement,” Garcea said.

Garcea also says Clark is in for a different election than in 2016.

“Now he’ll be judged more on his record rather than his promise like he was the first time around against Mr. Atchison,” said Garcea. “So while some people may have moved towards Mr.Clark, there may be some people who feel things could have been done differently or things that shouldn’t have been done at all.

“They’re more likely to think about voting for someone else so the question becomes, will they vote for Mr. Atchison or will they vote for Rob Norris?”

Garcea says he thinks it’s great that people are going to hear alternative points of view this election on how the city should move forward.

“People will be listening very carefully to what these three candidates have to say, so we’re blessed because there’s going to be real debate and people will have real choice,” said Garcea.

The other three candidates running for mayor are Zubair Sheikh, Mark Zeilke and Cary Tarasoff.