For more information on Saskatoon Eastview, please click here.
The constituency we now call Saskatoon Eastview has its origins in the 1967 provincial election campaign. It was first called Saskatoon Nutana South. The winning candidate was Dr. Austin Forsyth for the Liberals. Forsyth was defeated in 1971 by Herman Rolfes of the NDP. Rolfes would serve in the Blakeney Cabinet as Minister of Social Services, Minister of Continuing Education and Minister of Health. Rolfes switched ridings in 1975 and the new MLA in the renamed Saskatoon Eastview constituency was Liberal Glen Penner, who is remains a Saskatoon City Councillor to this very day. After his term was done, Penner retired and was succeeded in 1978 by Bernard Poniatowski of the NDP. But Poniatowski also served for just one term, having been swept out with most of his NDP colleagues in the 1982 "Monday Night Massacre". Kim Young was the winning candidate for the PCs in Saskatoon Eastview. After just one term, Young also retired and was replced by Ray Martineau, another Tory. But after serving just a few months as MLA for Saskatoon Eastview, Martineau mysteriously quits. In the 4 May 1988 by-election held in Saskatoon Eastview, the winner was Bob Pringle of the NDP, winning 53 percent of the vote. Pringle was easily re-elected in 1991 and later joined the Romanow Cabinet as Minister of Social Services. Later Pringle also served as Minister of Senior's Issues. By 1998, Pringle had obviously had enough of provincial politics, because he resigned and returned to Saskatoon and became a City Councillor. Pringle resigned from Council last year and has begun a 5 year term as the Province's Children's Advocate.
A by-election was held in June 1998 to replace Pringle. Liberal Leader Jim Melenchuk decided to run in the by-election, but it turned out to be a mistake. The by-election was won by NDP candidate Judy Junor, President of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses. In hindsight, that by-election loss was another event that helped speed the Saskatchewan Liberals on their downward spiral to fringe party status. Anyone, Junor joined the NDP cabinet and would become Associate Minister of Health, Provincial Secretary, and later Minister of Learning. Junor has since been re-elected in Saskatoon Eastview in 1999, 2003 and 2007, and is seeking re-election tomorrow.
Junor's percentage of the vote has always been in the 45 percent range. But she faces her strongest challenge yet from Corey Tochor of the Saskatchewan Party. Junor only beat the Sask Party by 410 votes or four percentage points in 2007. This time there is no Liberal candidate in the seat; in 1998 the Liberals won 10 percent in Saskatoon Eastview. This means that Junor is in big trouble, since almost all of the Liberal vote will go to the Sask Party. Add in the strong provincial momentum behind the Saskatchewan Party, and Junor may be hard pressed to win again on November 7th. Victory is not impossible Junor, just not very likely.
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