Lloydminster

Lloydminster is a unique border city straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan provincial boundary, and its Saskatchewan-side riding has been a stronghold for the Saskatchewan Party. Colleen Young first won the seat in a November 2014 by-election and was re-elected in 2016 with a commanding majority. As the region's economy is heavily tied to the heavy oil industry, the 2016-2020 term brought significant economic turbulence. Young entered the 2020 race as a well-established incumbent, while the newly formed Buffalo Party sought to channel western alienation frustrations that ran deep in the oil patch.

Candidates

Colleen Young (Saskatchewan Party) — Born and raised on a family farm east of Saskatoon, Young had called Lloydminster home for nearly four decades by the time of the 2020 election. She attended the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan and served as a trustee on the Lloydminster Public School Board of Education for twenty years, chairing the board for sixteen of those years. She was also involved with the Prairie North Regional Health Board and numerous community organizations, including the Kiwanis Club and the Lloydminster Early Intervention Program.

Colleen Morrell Henning (NDP) — Henning was born and raised in Lloydminster and worked as a teacher at Holy Rosary High School, also serving the school division as an assessment specialist. She was active in the Lloydminster Teachers' Association, serving as both president and vice-president, and volunteered as treasurer for several non-profit organizations including the Lloydminster Social Action Coalition and the Lloydminster Fringe.

Steve Gessner (Buffalo Party) — Gessner was born in Humboldt and grew up on a farm near the Battlefords. He spent three decades in the transportation industry as a truck driver before selling his business and semi-retiring. Drawn to the Buffalo Party's platform of western autonomy and its call to abolish the federal transfer payment program, he decided to run as the party's Lloydminster candidate.

Audra Kish ran for the Green Party but received minimal support.

Local Issues

The dominant issue in Lloydminster during the 2016-2020 term was the volatile state of the heavy oil industry. The region produces a significant share of conventional oil from both Alberta and Saskatchewan, and when global oil prices declined sharply in 2019 and then collapsed in early 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the Saudi-Russia price war, the effects were devastating. Saskatchewan's oil production fell from roughly 503,000 barrels per day in March 2020 to 361,000 barrels per day by May, and drilling across the province ground to a complete halt by mid-March. For Lloydminster, where the oil sector is the backbone of the local economy, the downturn meant layoffs, reduced investment, and uncertainty for workers and small businesses.

The Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce identified several pressing concerns during this period, including the need for adequate economic development services following the dissolution of the Lloydminster Economic Development Corporation, and the potential costs of meeting federal methane emission reduction targets. The federal carbon tax, which took effect in Saskatchewan on April 1, 2019, was deeply unpopular in the riding. Premier Scott Moe's government challenged the tax in court, and the case was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in September 2020, just weeks before the election. The border city's unique position also raised jurisdictional complexities, as residents on either side of the provincial line experienced different provincial tax and regulatory regimes.