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It is the seat of kings, Saskatchewan NDP royalty. Saskatoon Riversdale has elected not one, but two New Democrat MLAs who were Premier of Saskatchewan, those being Roy Romanow and Lorne Calvert. Saskatoon Riversdale first emerged on Saskatoon's political map in the 1967 provincial election. A young lawyer named Roy Romanow won the NDP in this seat. In 1970, Romanow would come within a whisker of beating Allan Blakeney in the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race. The following year when the Blakeney Government came to power, Blakaney made Romanow Deputy Premier and Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Romanow's status for many years after is that he was the Dauphin, the crown prince of the NDP who would someday succeed Blakeney as Sask NDP Leader and become Premier of Saskatchewan. Romanow went on to easy re-election in Saskatoon Riversdale in 1971, 1975 and 1978. But in 1982, Romanow got caught in the "Monday Night Massacre" PC landslide. It is now the stuff of legend; Romanow lost Saskatoon Riversdale in that election by 19 votes to a young woman named JoAnn Zazelenchuk. Romanow spent the next 2 years in court in an attempt to have the results overturned, but without luck. But in 1986, Romanow made a huge comeback by winning back Saskatoon Riversdale in a landslide once again. The next year, Romanow was acclaimed to succeed Blakeney as NDP Leader, and became Leader of the Official Opposition. 1991 was not a disappointment to Romanow - he was easily re-elected in his seat, and became Premier of Saskatchewan in the "Monday Night Massacre Part 2" when his NDP won 55 of the 66 seats in the Legislature. Romanow was re-elected in 1995 and 1999, but his government ended up in a minority government. It wasn't supposed to happen, and although he salvaged a majority government by signing a coalition pact with the Liberals, his political fate was sealed. Romanow retired from politics in 2000, and a huge chapter in the history of Saskatoon Riversdale had come to an end.
When Lorne Calvert won the Sask NDP leadership race in 2001, he needed to find a seat in the Legislature. At the time the only vacant seat was Saskatoon Riversdale, so he contested the seat in the 2001 by-election, and won handily. Calvert won easy re-election in 2003 and again in 2007. The 2003 election win for Calvert was a shining moment for him; the party was widely expected to lose the election, but instead won 30 out of 58 seats. In his final run in 2007, Calvert won 56 percent of the vote in the constituency. In 2008, Calvert announced he would retire from politics, and the following year he resigned as the MLA for Saskatoon Riversdale.
In the June 2009 by-election in the southwest Saskatoon riding, Danielle Chartier won for the New Democrats with 53 percent of the vote. However she staved off a strong challenge from the Saskatchewan Party, who got 42 percent of the vote.
Chartier is running for re-election tomorrow in Saskatoon Riversdale. In all of the punditry about the unfolding of the vote, it is always mentioned that Chartier will likely be re-elected, in spite of the relatively close by-election results in 2009. The Liberals got a little over 2 percent of the vote in this seat in the 2009 by-election and are not running a candidate in the seat this time, so the little bit of vote they add to the Sask Party total will not be enough to ensure SP candidate Fred Ozirney victory. tomorrow. If Ozirney closes the gap and forces a close race on November 7, it will be because of the strong momentum behind the Sask Party's provincewide campaign. The gap of victory may close considerably for Chartier, but the conventional wisdom is that she will win again in Saskatoon Riversdale.
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