The reverberations from the Saskatchewan provincial election won't be felt so much in how the results have changed things, but rather in what they have confirmed. Brad Wall's third consecutive majority victory — in which he nearly matched the record-setting 64 per cent of the vote he captured in 2011 — keeps the Saskatchewan premier at the forefront of the conservative movement in Canada.
The results for the Saskatchewan Party were remarkably strong for a government seeking a third term. Wall's party captured 62.6 per cent of the vote, taking a majority of ballots cast in both the urban and rural parts of Saskatchewan.
The scale of his victory cements his position as one of the leading elected conservative voices in the country. Though interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose heads up the federal government's Official Opposition, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's unofficial opposition may actually be sitting in the premier's office in Regina.
Going simply by the numbers, his win in Saskatchewan had to come from support across the political spectrum. The Conservatives captured 48.5 per cent of the vote in the province in last year's federal election, a measure that Wall beat by about 14 points.
And on April 19, the New Democrats could lose their grip on power in Manitoba, as they trail the Progressive Conservatives there by about 20 points.
The results in Saskatchewan were also a stark reminder to Liberals that the Trudeau effect has its limits. The Saskatchewan Liberals, running a full slate after putting up only nine candidates in 2011, took just 3.6 per cent of the vote.
