href="http://www.elections.sk.ca/voters/find-my-constituency/martensville?poll=Martensville26">Click here for the Elections Saskatchewan page on the Martensville constituency.
The story of the Martensville (formerly Rosthern until the 1999 election) constituency is really the story of Mennonite voting trends in Saskatchewan. Voters of the Mennonite faith dominate the demographics of the riding north of Saskatoon, and most of the constituency's MLAs are of Mennonite ancestry.
Rosthern constituency was first contested in 1905 and the winning candidate was Gerhard Ens of the Liberals. Ens is responsible for helping thousands of Mennonite families emigrate from Russia to Canada, and is also considered to be the founder of the town of Rosthern. Ens, who held the post of Government Whip in the Walter Scott Government, was the province's first MLA who was not of British ancestry or born in Canada. Ens was re-elected in 1908 and 1912. Ens resigned in 1913 and the Liberals kept the seat in the 1914 by-election, with William Bashford as the new MLA. Bashford was re-elected in 1917, but in 1921 Liberal John Uhrich won. He was acclaimed as MLA in 1925 and was re-elected in 1929, 1934 and 1938. Uhrich held a number of cabinet portfolios during time including Provincial Secretary, Public Works, and was Saskatchewan's first Minister of Public Health. In 1948 Uhrich was appointed as Lieutentant-Governor of Saskatchewan and died in office in 1951.
In 1944, Rosthern constituency bucked the CCF trend by sending Liberal MLA Peter Hooge to the Legislature. In 1948 Hooge made way for Walter Tucker, the former Liberal MP for Rosthern from 1935 to 1948 and from 1953 to 1958. Tucker was leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party from 1948 to 1953. Tucker took the Liberals through two elections against Tommy Douglas and the CCF Government. The 1948 election was a watershed election, where the Liberals went after the socialist record of the CCF and ran joint candidates with the PC party in many constituencies to prevent splitting the free enterprise vote. The Liberals ended up seeing a dramatic rise in its seat count in the Legislature from 5 to 19 but still fell short of its goal to end the CCF regime. Tucker was also unsuccessful in 1952 and returned to federal politics in 1953. Samuel Carr won the Rosthern by-election for the Liberals in 1953, but lost in an upset in 1956 to Isaak Elias of the Social Credit Party in 1956. Elias was one of 3 Socred MLAs elected in 1956. The party was led by Martin Kelln of Duval. By 1960 Rosthern had returned to the Liberal fold with the election of David Boldt as the new MLA. Boldt was re-elected in 1964, 1967 and 1971. Boldt was the Minister of Highways in the Thatcher Government and played a key role in the extension of Highway 11 from Saskatoon to Prince Albert.
Boldt retired in 1975 and as fate would have it, he was the last Liberal MLA for Rosthern. In 1975 voters in the riding joined with others in 6 other constituencies to send the first Tory Caucus of 7 MLAs to the Legislature since the Dirty Thirties. In a fairly close rase, Ralph Katzman of the PC Party narrowly beat Thatcher era cabinet minister Allan Guy. Katzman was re-elected in 1978 and in 1982. Katzman was convicted in 2000 in connection with the Tory Fraud Scandal and was sentenced to one year in prison and was ordered to repay $100,000 in restitution. Katzman was replaced in 1986 by Tory MLA Bill Neudorf. Neudorf was re-elected in 1991 in wake of the "Monday Night Massacre Part 2" as Roy Romanow's landslide NDP victory has come to by known as. Neudorf served briefly in the Devine Cabinet from 1989 to 1991. In 1995 Neudorf retired and was replaced by fellow PC MLA Ben Heppner. Heppner joined 3 other Tory MLAs and 4 Liberals MLAs in 1997 to help form the Saskatchewan Party. Heppner was re-elected in 1999 and 2003. Bill passed away from prostate cancer while in public office in 2006. He was replaced as the MLA for Martensville in 2007 by his daughter Nancy Heppner. The junior Heppner was re-elected with the Saskatchewan Party in 2007 and served in the Wall Cabinet as Minister of the Environment from 2007 to 2010.
Heppner is running again for re-election on November 7. Heppner captured over 73% of the vote in the Martensville constituency in 2007 and over 77% in the 2007 by-election. Given the increased popularity of the Saskatchewan Party since 2007 and the likelihood that there will be no Liberal candidate in Martensville this time around, it is not beyond the pale that Heppner could win up to 80% or more of the vote in her riding this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment