Constituency Profile: Kindersley

Kindersley constituency is marked in red on this map

For more background on Kindersley constituency, just click this link.

The voting history of the Kindersley constituency goes back 99 years and includes a colourful cascade of politicians from across Saskatchewan's unique political spectrum. The first MLA elected in the Kindersley constituency was in 1912. He was William Motherwell, Saskatchewan's first Minister of Agriculture. Motherwell was the provincial Liberal Agriculture Minister from 1906 to 1917. Later Motherwell went on to become the federal Agriculture Minister in the Mackenzie King government. The Motherwell Homestead near Abernethy in east-central Saskatchewan was Motherwell's base of operations. After Motherwell went to Ottawa, Kindersley became dominated by agrarian socialist politicians. In a 1919 by-election, Wesley Harvey,  Farmer-Independent candidate was acclaimed in Kindersley. Harvey went on to win the seat over the Liberals in 1921 with over 72 percent of the vote, this time as a Progressive MLA. In 1925 the Progressives won Kindersley again with Ebenezer Whatley as the winning candidate. Whatley was re-elected in 1929 and became part of the infamous Anderson coalition government. Whatley didn't even bother running for re-election in 1934. Kindersley was then won by Louis Hantelman of the new Farmer-Labour party. This was one of the five seats won by Farmer-Labour in the pivotal 1934 election that saw the Liberals win a landslide government and every member of the Anderson government defeated. The Farmer-Labour Party went on to become the Saskatchewan CCF. Hantelman later served for Canada in World War 2, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. Donald Laing of the Liberals won the new Kerrobert-Kindersley in 1938.

In 1944, the voters of Kerrobert-Kindersley joined most of the rest of Saskatchewan in electing a CCF MLA as part of the historic Douglas landslide win. The triumphant candidate for the CCF was John Wellbelove. Kerrobert-Kindersley remained a strong CCF seat through the Douglas years, with Wellbelove being re-elected in 1948, 1952 and 1956. Wellbelove retired in 1960 and was replaced by CCF MLA Eldon Johnson. But in 1964 the Liberals finally won Kerrobert-Kindersley with Bill Howes as the winning candidate over Johnson. Howes was re-elected in 1967 but was narrowly defeated in 1971 by New Democrat Alex Taylor. This would mark the end of the era; it was the very last time the CCF/NDP ever won this seat.

In 1975 the new Kindersley riding was won the by Liberals one more time. The winning candidate was Neil McMillan, who was just in his 20s at the time. Today McMillan is the President and CEO of Claude Resources, a Saskatchewan-based gold mining and gas and oil exploration company. For years after McMillan narrowly lost the Kindersley riding in 1978, it was speculated for years that McMillan was the great "dauphin" of the Saskatchewan Liberal party, that some day he would return to claim the Liberal throne, rebuild party and restore its former power and glory. However McMillan never made the move. Probably his ideal time to have done so would have been in 1989, when Lynda Haverstock came on the scene. In any case McMillan has had a very successful private sector career, and likely has no regrets about returning to save what became a lost cause.

In 1978 Kindersley voters brought their constituency into a new chapter in its history when they entered the Tory fold. Bob Andrew of Eston was elected as the new MLA and went on to be re-elected in 1982 and 1986. Andrew was a high-profile cabinet minister in the Devine government, having served as Minister of Justice. Andrew quit in 1989, and the Kindersley constituency remained vacant for the next 2 years. In 1991, former Saskatchewan Liberal Leader Lynda Haverstock had first considered running in the Kindersley constituency, but was unwisely talked out of it by the swarm of lawyers that surrounded her (and later ended her political career). Instead, Bill Boyd of Eston would go on to win a close contest here in 1991 and has mostly been the MLA for Kindersley ever since. In 1994 the wily Boyd became leader of the Saskatchewan PC Party and went on in 1995 to salvage 5 MLAs in a miraculous and well-run election campaign. In 1997 Boyd became one of the original 8 MLAs to form the Saskatchewan Party. In 2002 Boyd quit as MLA and was replaced in a by-election by Jason Dearborn of the Saskatchewan Party. Dearborn was easily re-elected in 2003, but drew unwelcome attention to himself. In 2007 Dearborn did not seek re-election, and Boyd returned. Today Boyd is the Minister of Energy and Resources, and of Intergovernmental Affairs. He is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and influential ministers in the Wall Government, and may yet become Premier of Saskatchewan some day.