Kindersley

Kindersley, in west-central Saskatchewan, is an oil and agriculture riding that had experienced a turbulent stretch of political upheaval before the 2020 election. Long-time MLA Bill Boyd, a founding member of the Saskatchewan Party, retired under a cloud in 2017 after being booted from caucus over a conflict-of-interest finding related to a Chinese-backed immigration-irrigation scheme and the controversial Global Transportation Hub land deal. He also faced environmental charges. Ken Francis won the ensuing March 2018 by-election decisively and sought his first full-term mandate in 2020. The Buffalo Party made Kindersley one of its priority targets, finishing second with a substantial share of the vote.

Candidates

Ken Francis (Saskatchewan Party) — Francis was born and raised in the Kindersley area and was a self-employed owner-operator of a land and environmental company. Before his by-election win, he served as a town councillor and Deputy Mayor of Kindersley. He won the Saskatchewan Party’s nomination in a contested race prior to the 2018 by-election, capturing eighty-eight percent of the vote in the by-election itself.

Jason R. Cooper (Buffalo Party) — Cooper ran on the Buffalo Party’s platform of greater provincial autonomy, including opposition to the federal carbon tax and calls for Saskatchewan to manage its own tax structures and pension plan. His second-place finish in Kindersley was one of the Buffalo Party’s strongest results across the province.

Steven Allen (NDP) — Allen carried the NDP banner in one of the party’s most challenging ridings, finishing a distant third.

Terry J. Sieben (Progressive Conservative) — Sieben was born in Kerrobert and lived in Major. He had worked with CN Rail for eleven years before spending nearly two decades in the bar and motel business. He campaigned on reducing liquor prices and eliminating the provincial sales tax.

Evangeline Godron (Green Party) received a minimal share of the vote.

Local Issues

The oil price collapse of 2020 devastated the Kindersley area. The riding sits atop productive oil formations, and the combined shock of the Saudi-Russia price war and the pandemic-induced demand crash brought drilling to a standstill across Saskatchewan by mid-year. Oil production in the province fell by more than 28 percent between March and May 2020, and service companies in the region were forced to lay off workers. For a community that depended on both farming and oil field employment, the downturn was deeply felt and made federal energy policy—particularly the carbon tax and pipeline politics—intensely local issues.

The legacy of Bill Boyd’s controversies still lingered in the constituency. The Global Transportation Hub land scandal and Boyd’s conflict-of-interest findings had embarrassed the Saskatchewan Party and contributed to a sense among some voters that the governing party had grown complacent. Ken Francis, a local government veteran without ties to those controversies, was seen as a fresh start. Nevertheless, the Buffalo Party’s strong second-place finish suggested that a segment of the electorate wanted a more aggressive stance against Ottawa than the Saskatchewan Party was offering.

Agriculture, as in much of rural Saskatchewan, remained central to the riding’s identity. Producers faced ongoing challenges with input costs, market access, and weather variability. The federal carbon tax was a particular irritant for farmers dealing with fuel and drying costs, and both the Saskatchewan Party and the Buffalo Party made opposition to the tax a cornerstone of their campaigns.