2006-06-20
Author: 800 CHAB NEWS

Weyburn Big Muddy will remain a Saskatchewan Party constituency as Dustin Duncan shot ahead in the standings and never looked back in Monday’s by-election.

Duncan is very pleased with his first place finish. "I'm just overwhelmed by the support, grateful for the opportunity, and I'm just looking forward to the challenges ahead."

Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall was also pleased with the campaign and of course the end result. "We wanted to stay positive with a positive message for not just this constituency but for the province and we were able to do that and Dustin certainly did a great job of that. I'm very proud, very proud that he's on the team."

Some may call the Saskatchewan Party win an upset for the NDP as many thought the Calvert government's support was strong in the south eastern constituency like NDP candidate Graham Mickleborough. "I totally enjoyed running and meeting the people and were well received at the door but we clearly didn't see this coming. We felt we were neck and neck to take this thing and I think I was very well received as a person and as a candidate... but the voters have spoken."

The Liberals finished second in the by-election while the NDP finished in a distant third, something NDP Premier Lorne Calvert will have on his mind with a full provincial election coming up in just over a year. "In my experience in the constituency there's some sense of dissatisfaction that's not specific to any particular issue but its a sense of some dissatisfaction that leads me to believe people are not feeling the same momentum that I believe the province has these days. If that's true in Weyburn Big Muddy then it may be true elsewhere."