Regina Northeast

Regina Northeast covers the Parkridge, Uplands, Glencairn, and Glencairn Village neighbourhoods in the city's east end. The Saskatchewan Party's Kevin Doherty held this seat from 2011 until his resignation in March 2018 to pursue a private-sector career. The resulting September 2018 by-election was won by NDP lawyer Yens Pedersen, who took the seat with a comfortable margin and became the party's agriculture and environment critic. By 2020, the Saskatchewan Party was eager to reclaim the riding, setting up a rematch between Pedersen and the businessman who had finished second in the by-election, Gary Grewal.

Candidates

Gary Grewal (Saskatchewan Party) — Grewal immigrated to Canada from India in 1983 and settled in Regina, where he studied mechanical engineering at university before building a career in the hospitality sector over more than 25 years. He was the first Indo-Canadian elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature. Active in community life, Grewal served as president of the India Canada Association of Saskatchewan and the Sikh Society, and as a director of the Canadian Cricket Association.

Yens Pedersen (NDP) — A Regina lawyer with over 20 years of experience specializing in work with individual families and small to mid-size businesses, Pedersen grew up on a family farm near Cut Knife, Saskatchewan, and earned his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. He won the 2018 by-election and served as MLA for two years, taking on the NDP critic portfolios for agriculture and environment. He had previously served as president of the Saskatchewan NDP.

Corie Rempel (Progressive Conservative) — A small business owner from Regina with a background in farming, the restaurant industry, construction, and property maintenance.

Anthony Majore (Green Party) and Jeff Walters (Liberal) also ran but received less than 2% of the vote each.

Local Issues

The 2018 by-election that brought Pedersen to office was shaped by frustration over provincial cuts to education and Crown corporation services, and those themes carried into the 2020 campaign. Education funding had not kept pace with enrolment growth since 2016, and the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation warned that classrooms were being left with fewer resources despite thousands of additional students entering the system. Residents in Regina Northeast's growing suburban neighbourhoods were particularly attentive to school capacity and classroom supports.

The 2020 election was held during the COVID-19 pandemic, which introduced new concerns around healthcare capacity and pandemic preparedness. The NDP criticized the government's response, including Health Minister Jim Reiter's visibility at COVID-19 briefings. The pandemic also led to record mail-in ballot applications across the province, with more than 61,000 people requesting vote-by-mail kits compared to roughly 4,400 in 2016. The Saskatchewan Party framed the election around economic recovery and its opposition to the federal carbon tax, while the NDP emphasized healthcare and education funding as central priorities.