Constituency Profile: Carrot River Valley

Carrot River Valley constituency is outlined in red on the map above.

For more information on Carrot River Valley constituency, please click on this link.

Carrot River Valley constituency came into being for the 1995 provincial election. It is a merger of most of the old Nipawin and Kelsey-Tisdale ridings. The first MLA for Carrot River Valley was New Democrat Andy Renaud, a realtor from Tisdale who was the MLA for Kelsey-Tisdale from 1991 to 1995. Keley-Tisdale had a long history of electing CCF/NDP MLAs, and Renaud caught the tail end of that tradition. Renaud captured 43 percent of the vote in 1995, but in 1999 he slipped to 39 percent and Carl Kwiatkowski of the Sask Party roared to victory here with 50 percent of the vote. Kwiatkowski had a promising political career but died suddenly early in 2003. In the subsequent by-election, former Reform MP Allan Kerpan won Carrot River Valley for the Sask Party again with 48 percent of the vote. Kerpan was narrowly re-elected in the 2003 election with 46 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for New Democrat Mark Pitzel. But Kerpan stepped aside for 2007 and Fred Bradshaw, a pilot from Carrot River, kept this seat for the SP with 61 percent of the vote.

Bradshaw is seeking a second term on November 7. Given that there will be no Liberal candidate in Carrot River Valley this time and the current momentum in Saskatchewan politics, it would not be beyond the pale for Bradshaw to win again with 65 to 70 percent of the vote. History will also be made in this election with the first Green candidate to appear on the ballot in Carrot River Valley.