Constituency Profile: Wood River

Wood River constituency outlined in red on the map.

For more information on the Wood River constituency, please click here.

Of all of the 58 constituencies in Saskatchewan politics, the Wood River seat has a truly unique history. This riding is ground zero in Saskatchewan Liberal politics. It is the only constituency in the province, with current or previous boundaries, to have a Liberal MLA in every decade of the province's history. Until 1944, only Liberals represented this part of the province in the Legislature. Past MLAs worthy of note from this part of south-west Saskatchewan include Ted Culliton, Lionel Coderre, Karl Klein and Ralph Goodale of the Liberals, Ted Gross, Allan Engel, Thomas Bentley and Dwain Lingenfelter for the CCF/NDP, and Jack Wolfe for the Tories.

Wood River first came into existence in 1995 with the merging of the Assiniboia-Gravelbourg and Shaunavon constituencies. The First MLA was Glen McPherson, a Liberal who jumped from the NDP in 1993. McPherson got 48 percent of the vote, a plurality of over 1,500 votes over New Democrat Allan Engel. McPherson was part of the Liberal caucus intrigue that lead to the forced resignation of Lynda Haverstock in November 1995, just five months after the provincial election. McPherson went on to get re-elected in 1999, but only by a one-vote margin over Yogi Huyghebaert with the Saskatchewan Party. Rather than fight a court challenge from the Sask Party and looking at a hopeless situation with the Liberals in a coalition government with the NDP, McPherson resigned as the MLA for Wood River early in 2000 and faded from the political scene fairly quickly. In the fall 2000 by-election in Wood River, Huyghebaert won a commanding victory with over 65 percent of the vote. Yogi had received about 40 percent of the vote the previous year. Huyghebaert went on to get re-elected in 2003 and in 2007, with 55 and 70 percent of the vote respectively.

For the 2011 election, Huyghebaert is running for re-election, having served in cabinet for the past 2 years as the Minister of Corrections, Public Safety and Policing. His opponents are
Randy Gaudry of Willow Bunch for the NDP and Luke Bonsan of the Greens. Incredibly, it appears there will be no Liberal candidate in Wood River this time. Given the long Liberal history in this seat, it is nothing short of astonishing that there will be no Liberal candidate in Wood River this time. It would be like the NDP not running a candidate in Regina Elphinstone-Centre.