‘Most pointless election’: Moe fired up over election results

Premier Scott Moe offered a blunt assessment Tuesday of the federal election.

“Let’s be clear: This was the most pointless election in Canada’s history,” Moe told reporters at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building.

When Parliament was dissolved, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals had a minority government with 155 of 338 seats. After Monday’s balloting, the Liberals again have a minority, this time with 158 seats.

The Conservatives were elected or leading in 119 ridings after votes were counted Monday, two fewer seats than they had before the election. The Bloc Quebecois was up two seats to 34, the NDP was up one to 25 and the Green Party had two seats.

The Conservatives held on to all 14 ridings in Saskatchewan.

With numbers in the House of Commons shaking out nearly the same as they were after the 2019 election, Moe said nothing changed even after five weeks and $600 million were spent on the campaign.

“This time and money could have been spent working to address real issues that are facing Canadians and facing Canadians that reside here in Saskatchewan,” he said.

Among the priorities Moe would have liked to see are funding for health care, increasing vaccination rates, and positioning the country as a leader in the economic recovery from the pandemic. Moe said instead, the prime minister focused on his own “political ambitions.”

With the Liberal Party only capturing about 10 per cent of the vote in Saskatchewan, Moe said that 90 per cent of the province didn’t want Trudeau as prime minister.

“It’s my job to represent the people of the province of Saskatchewan and so when I need to stand up against — whether it’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, or the person and the party that’s supporting him, (the NDP’s) Jagmeet Singh — I most certainly am going to do that,” said Moe.

Moe seemed to take personally some of what happened in the federal campaign, calling Trudeau’s rhetoric “divisive.”

“This was a federal government that was highlighting anything that they could in a divisive nature between the federal Liberal party and a certain number of provinces that may be led by a different party,” said Moe.

“It’s unfortunate that we have a prime minister that has used the last five weeks during this election campaign to further create divisions across this nation.”

In particular, Moe defended Saskatchewan’s low vaccination rates which came up in the campaign. Moe tried to turn it around and blame it on the federal government and prime minister instead, saying many of the communities in the province with the lowest vaccination rates are Indigenous communities, which are under federal jurisdiction.

Saskatchewan has been able to work well with the federal government in the past, according to Moe, and he said he will work with it in future as well.

“I would ask him, as premier, on behalf of the people of this province of Saskatchewan to work closely with this province of Saskatchewan, to quit putting forward these divisions like you did in the election campaign (and) like you have over the course of the last five years from time to time,” said Moe.

PPC in Saskatoon

When asked about the People’s Party of Canada election night gathering in Saskatoon — where hundreds of people were gathered and few, if any, were wearing masks — Moe said it was unfortunate.

Moe said he’s sure the Saskatoon police will deal with any incidents that don’t follow public health orders.