Estevan

Estevan, in the far southeast corner of the province, styles itself as Saskatchewan’s “Energy City.” The constituency is home to SaskPower’s Boundary Dam generating station—including Unit 3, the first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facility on a coal-fired power plant in the world. Incumbent Saskatchewan Party MLA Lori Carr, first elected in 2016, sought a second term with energy policy and healthcare as her headline issues. The riding stood out for the Buffalo Party’s exceptionally strong second-place finish: Phil Zajac drew nearly a quarter of the vote, more than any other Buffalo Party candidate in the province.

Candidates

Lori Carr (Saskatchewan Party) — Before entering politics, Carr spent twenty years working as a licensed assistant in a financial planning office. She also served ten years on Estevan City Council and was active in community organizations including the Air Cadet League, the Sun Country Health Region board, and Ducks Unlimited. As MLA, she was appointed Minister of Highways and Infrastructure by Premier Scott Moe in August 2018.

Phillip Michael Zajac (Buffalo Party) — Zajac had lived in Estevan for approximately eleven years by the time of the election. He held a bachelor’s degree from Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he played hockey and football and studied government and political thought. His second-place finish with nearly a quarter of the vote was the strongest showing by any Buffalo Party candidate in 2020.

Seth Lendrum (NDP) — Lendrum worked at Auto Electric in the Estevan–Weyburn area and was active in the labour movement. He was involved in local organizations including Toastmasters and Rotary, sang in the S.T.A.R.S. choir, and had been pursuing coursework toward becoming a paramedic. This was his first campaign for elected office.

Linda Sopp (Progressive Conservative) — Sopp served as president of Metis Nation of Saskatchewan’s Estevan Local 25 and was a former town councillor in Bienfait. She had worked as a direct support worker for people with disabilities at Estevan Diversified Services.

Scott Meyers (Green Party) also ran but received less than two percent of the vote.

Local Issues

The future of coal-fired power generation dominated Estevan’s political landscape throughout the 2016–2020 term. Federal regulations required coal plants without carbon capture technology to retire, and in 2018, SaskPower announced there was no business case to retrofit Boundary Dam’s Units 4 and 5 with carbon capture and storage. The looming phase-out of coal units threatened hundreds of jobs in and around Estevan. Carr campaigned on continuing to burn coal as a preferred energy source and promoted the potential for a small modular nuclear reactor to be sited in Estevan as a future power source.

The COVID-19 pandemic compounded Estevan’s economic challenges. The global oil price crash in early 2020 hit Saskatchewan’s southeast energy corridor especially hard, with drilling ceasing entirely across the province by mid-summer and production declining sharply. The combined loss of oil field and power sector jobs created acute anxiety in a community that depended on the energy industry. The Buffalo Party’s strong performance reflected frustration among voters who saw the federal government’s carbon pricing and coal phase-out policies as existential threats to their livelihoods.

Healthcare access was another persistent concern. Carr identified healthcare as a key priority for her constituents, and the pandemic underscored the challenges of delivering medical services in smaller regional centres distant from Saskatoon and Regina.