Last Mountain—Touchwood

Last Mountain—Touchwood stretches across the agricultural heartland east of Regina, running from the plains around Indian Head northward past Last Mountain Lake through the Touchwood Hills. Incumbent Saskatchewan Party MLA Travis Keisig, first elected in 2020 when he succeeded the retiring Glen Hart, sought a second term on a record that included service as Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Crown Investments Corporation. The race drew added attention when Hart, who had held the seat for more than two decades as a Saskatchewan Party stalwart, publicly endorsed NDP leader Carla Beck in October 2024, criticizing his former party for drifting rightward and mismanaging the healthcare system.

Candidates

Travis Keisig (Saskatchewan Party) — Keisig was born in Balcarres in 1972 and raised in the RM of Tullymet, where he continues to farm. He served in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves with 16 Medical Company before training as a welder at SIAST. He built a career as a mobile pressure welder in the oil and gas sector, working at refineries, power stations, potash mines, and pipelines across Saskatchewan before returning to the family farm. A longtime 4-H leader whose children represent the fourth generation of 4-H members from Tullymet, he was acclaimed as the Saskatchewan Party candidate for 2024.

Thera Nordal (NDP) — Nordal is an agricultural entrepreneur and grain farmer from the Southey district, where she and her husband Matthew operate a small business and a conventional grain farm. She has served on multiple community boards and coached numerous local sports teams. This was her second consecutive run in the riding, having captured a notable share of the vote in 2020 in what had been considered safe Saskatchewan Party territory. For 2024 she secured the NDP nomination in a contested vote.

Gene Unruh (Saskatchewan United Party) — Unruh is a retired teacher from Raymore who ran on the Saskatchewan United Party's platform of fiscal accountability and opposition to what the party characterized as overreach by both the federal and provincial governments.

Local Issues

The endorsement of NDP leader Carla Beck by former Saskatchewan Party MLA Glen Hart marked an extraordinary moment in the riding's political history. Hart, who had served Last Mountain—Touchwood for more than two decades, stated publicly that the Saskatchewan Party had moved too far to the right and that Premier Moe had failed to address the province's healthcare crisis. He also criticized the government's decision to withhold federal carbon levy payments, calling it a violation of the law. Hart's defection, alongside similar endorsements from former Saskatchewan Party MLA Mark Docherty and former party adviser Ian Hanna, underscored fractures within the conservative coalition that had dominated rural Saskatchewan politics.

Potash development remained a live issue in the constituency. The Yancoal solution mining project near Southey, which had generated community opposition over water usage and agricultural land impacts since its initial proposal, saw a change of ownership in 2024 when Australia-based Highfield Resources agreed to acquire Yancoal Canada Resources for approximately 286 million US dollars. The pending transaction renewed questions among local landowners about the scale of water extraction, potential impacts on groundwater, and the balance between resource development and farming interests.

Healthcare was the thread connecting all the candidates' platforms. Rural emergency room closures, physician shortages, and long wait times for specialist care in communities far from Regina or Saskatoon shaped the debate. Keisig pointed to the provincial government's recruitment investments, while Nordal argued that years of underfunding had left rural healthcare in a state that incremental measures could not repair.