Saskatoon Eastview

Saskatoon Eastview had been held by the Saskatchewan Party since 2011, most recently by Corey Tochor, who served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly before resigning his seat in September 2019 to run successfully as the federal Conservative candidate in Saskatoon—University. With no incumbent on the ballot, the 2020 contest became one of the most closely watched races in the province. The Saskatchewan Party's campaign was further complicated when its original candidate, Daryl Cooper, resigned after it was revealed he had engaged with QAnon supporters online and shared conspiracy theories, including falsehoods linking the coronavirus to 5G technology. The party replaced Cooper with Chris Guérette just one day after his departure, barely three weeks before election day.

The NDP saw an opportunity to flip the seat and nominated Matt Love, a local teacher well known in the community. The resulting contest would prove to be one of the tightest races in the province, with the outcome hanging on mail-in ballots.

Candidates

Matt Love (NDP) — Love was a teacher with Saskatoon Public Schools who had spent a decade working in the Eastview community. At Aden Bowman Collegiate, he led a program focused on social justice and anti-racist education that included a weekly radio show on CFCR and a weekly opinion column in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. He also served as a senior football coach and GSA facilitator. In 2014, he received a CBC Saskatchewan Future 40 Award for his leadership and innovation as an educator.

Chris Guérette (Saskatchewan Party) — Guérette was the CEO of the Saskatoon and Region Home Builders' Association and brought over fifteen years of experience in the housing, non-profit, health, and education sectors. She was appointed as the party's candidate after Daryl Cooper's resignation, entering the race with less than a month until election day.

Jan Norris (Green Party) received approximately three per cent of the vote. She described herself as an artist, art teacher, and environmental advocate who volunteered with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society and served on the national board of the Sierra Club of Canada.

Local Issues

The QAnon controversy that forced the original Saskatchewan Party candidate's resignation cast a shadow over the race and raised broader questions about candidate vetting and the spread of conspiracy theories in Saskatchewan politics. The Saskatchewan Party moved quickly to distance itself from Cooper's views and denounced QAnon, but the episode created an opening for the NDP in a riding that had previously been safely in Saskatchewan Party territory.

Education was a defining issue in Saskatoon Eastview, amplified by Love's profile as a classroom teacher. The NDP ran fourteen candidates who were teachers across the province, and Love became one of the most prominent voices arguing that the Saskatchewan Party had allowed class sizes to grow too large and support staff levels to erode. The pandemic made these arguments more immediate, as parents worried about whether schools could reopen safely.

The race ultimately came down to mail-in ballots. On election night, Love led Guérette by just over one hundred votes, with more than 1,500 mail-in ballots approved in the riding. The unprecedented volume of mail-in voting, driven by the pandemic, meant the final result was not confirmed for weeks. The NDP's successful flip of this seat was one of its most significant gains in the 2020 election.