Constituency Profile: Saskatoon Southeast

Saskatoon Southeast constituency is outlined in red on the map above.

For more information on Saskatoon Southeast, click on this link.

Saskatoon Southeast was first contested in the 1991 election (also called the Monday Night Massacre Part 2) under the name of Saskatoon Wildwood. The riding was renamed to Saskatoon Southeast in 1995. The first MLA for this riding was Pat Lorje of the NDP. Lorje was a 12 year veteran of Saskatoon City Council before making the leap to the provincial arena. Lorje won by about 1,100 votes in 1991, 540 votes in 1995, and just 38 votes in 1999, each time against a Liberal candidate. The 1999 results went to a recount, but were dropped after the Liberal MLAs signed their death warrants by joining the disastrous Coalition Government. Somehow, Lorje made it into the Romanow and Calvert cabinets, serving in the following portfolios; Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Provincial Secretary, Minister of Post-Secondary Education, and Minister of the Environment. Toward the end of Lorje's time as an MLA she was briefly out of cabinet after a bizarre incident where she allegedly struck one of her aides. Apparently, the incident was coined later as an "afffectionate slap". Lorje didn't run for re-election in 2003, and took off for the glamourous life of Hollywood before returning to Saskatoon, and is now on City Council again.

After having lost Saskatoon Southeast by just 38 votes in 1999, there was a rumour afterward that in 2003, Liberal Leader David Karwacki was holding open the Liberal nomination in the seat for a star candidate. David's brother Grant had been the Liberal candidate in 1999, but in 2003 Grant decided to run in Saskatoon Nutana instead. However, the star candidate never materialized, and prominent Saskatoon lawyer Don Morgan stormed to victory for the Saskatchewan Party in the riding. Morgan has since gone on to easy re-election in 2007 by over 3,000 votes or 30 percentage points, and looks poised to win this riding again on November 7th.

Morgan is Justice Minister and Attorney General in the Wall Government, and one of the big power brokers in caucus. In 2007, Morgan captured 59 percent of the vote. With the wind in the Sask Party's sails and just a paper candidate running for the Liberals in Saskatoon Southeast, Morgan could easily win 70 percent of the vote or more in this election.